Correctional Nursing

I'm friends with some...go ahead and ask and I'll see if I can answer...

Okay I'll ask... What is the pay scale in AZ? Is it with CMS? What are the pros and cons that your friends find with working in correctional health?

All of the salary scales can be found online at Maricopa.gov (roughly $20.50-$34.00 per hour) or with the State DOC ($40,000-$55,000). Pros: lots of autonomy, grateful patients (they get virtually no attention from anyone), superb benefits. Cons: pay lags considerably behind hospitals, crushing bureaucracies, and stingy governments that do not give pay raises often enough. The state handles the lower pay by offering yearly bonuses based on job/location (you will find that on their website). Those bonuses can go away on the whim of the legislature. In fact, the state government has often gone several years without giving employees raises.

The one person I knew who worked for the private prison out in Florence quit the job - great money, lousy administration. And frankly, if you are going to work in a prison you should get the good state bennies. Take a look at the CDC in California. RN pay tops off at $125,000 a year - though the cost of living is pretty horific there.

Okay, thank you.