Correctional nursing

[uwalfra]

I got a job as a correctional nurse in CDCR. This is my first time working corrections although my current job can as well be in corrections but with little safety. We get the worst from down town LA and any other pts with no insurance especially homeless people. I have the guts for corrections but I want to know what benefits they really have.

*Do they get shift differential pay as we do in hospitals.

*They said safety workers do not qualify for SS. Its that a good or bad thing? Otherwords is the pension worth it?

*How many years do you have to work to qualify for retirement?

*What are the growth prospects?

*When last did civil servants have a pay increase?

*How to I succed in this environment.

*Do they have a high turnover rate and if so why? Because am quitting my good paying but very high stress acute care job for this.

Any insights will be highly appreciated.

[freeway]

Where I work the top pay is a good amount less than the local hospital. My state doesn't have a pension anymore. The benefits are good; in my state the benefits are public information. I've worked in corrections 2 years; I have seen a good amount of people start and quit because one reason or another. The stress is not so much like the hospital, its more like mental stress, or dealing with angry people and a lot of games inmates play. Growth prospects where I work seems to be only if you go into management. Inmates it seems dream of suing the state and making a million dollars, so you kind of always have that as a concern ( but I guess that could be the case in a hospital too).

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

I work in a state where state employees do not pay into Social Security. I will still get SS because I have enough qualifying quarters prior to my employment here to get it, but it will be reduced based upon the amount of time that I have worked here. My retirement from the state will be far more than I would ever have gotten paying into SS for all of that time. Look at it this way: Your money is going into a pot set aside just for you, instead of into one big basket to be doled out according to whatever formula that the federal government wants to use.

[uwalfra]

Thanks so much for the insight.

[uwalfra]

Thanks for responding. I appreciate the input.