Job Check
Correctional Officers and Jailers
Guard inmates in penal or rehabilitative institutions in accordance with established regulations and procedures. May guard prisoners in transit between jail, courtroom, prison, or other point. Includes deputy sheriffs and police who spend the majority of their time guarding prisoners in correctional institutions.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Conduct head counts to ensure that each prisoner is present.Mostly human for now
- 02Inspect conditions of locks, window bars, grills, doors, and gates at correctional facilities to ensure security and help prevent escapes.Mostly human for now
- 03Monitor conduct of prisoners in housing unit, or during work or recreational activities, according to established policies, regulations, and procedures, to prevent escape or violence.Mostly human for now
- 04Search prisoners and vehicles and conduct shakedowns of cells for valuables and contraband, such as weapons or drugs.Mostly human for now
- 05Guard facility entrances to screen visitors.Mostly human for now
- 06Record information, such as prisoner identification, charges, and incidents of inmate disturbance, keeping daily logs of prisoner activities.AI could speed this up a lot
- 07Inspect mail for the presence of contraband.AI could speed this up, with extra tools
- 08Maintain records of prisoners' identification and charges.AI could speed this up a lot
- 09Use weapons, handcuffs, and physical force to maintain discipline and order among prisoners.Mostly human for now
- 10Use nondisciplinary tools and equipment, such as a computer.AI could speed this up a lot
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
26%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 32% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 54% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Conduct head counts to ensure that each prisoner is present.
- Inspect conditions of locks, window bars, grills, doors, and gates at correctional facilities to ensure security and help prevent escapes.
- Monitor conduct of prisoners in housing unit, or during work or recreational activities, according to established policies, regulations, and procedures, to prevent escape or violence.