---
title: "Will AI Replace Correctional Officers and Jailers?"
description: "BLS rates correctional officers and jailers' exposure to AI as moderate. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-correctional-officers-and-jailers"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Correctional Officers and Jailers? (2026)

**Short answer:** Unlikely to be replaced, but the job is shrinking. Exposure to AI is moderate, below the middle of the pack, and BLS projects employment to fall for reasons that are not mainly AI.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places correctional officers and jailers in its moderate AI exposure category, below the middle of the pack: some of the work overlaps with what AI can do, much of it does not. BLS projects employment to fall by 7.4% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 28,400 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | Moderate | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 56/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | -7.4% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 28,400 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $58,940 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low | 203 |
| Moderate (this job) | 194 |
| High | 190 |
| Very high | 199 |

Exposure means AI could be or has been used to assist with or complete some of the work. BLS says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability or wage effects. Method: https://www.bls.gov/emp/publications/ai-exposure-categories.htm

## What holds up

- Face-to-face discussions: 4.9/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Resolving conflicts and negotiating with others: 4.2/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Assisting and caring for others: 3.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Coaching and developing others: 3.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## What AI reaches first

- Documenting/recording information: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Repeating the same tasks: 4.3/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Processing information: 3.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Email: 4.5/5 (O\*NET work context)

## O\*NET tasks

- Participate in required job training.
- Inspect conditions of locks, window bars, grills, doors, and gates at correctional facilities to ensure security and help prevent escapes.
- Conduct fire, safety, and sanitation inspections.
- Provide to supervisors oral and written reports of the quality and quantity of work performed by inmates, inmate disturbances and rule violations, and unusual occurrences.
- Conduct head counts to ensure that each prisoner is present.
- Counsel inmates and respond to legitimate questions, concerns, and requests.

## Related careers less exposed to AI than correctional officers and jailers

- [Firefighter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/firefighter): BLS exposure Low, median $59,280; [Will AI replace firefighters?](https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-firefighters)
- [First-Line Supervisor of Firefighting and Prevention Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-firefighting-and-prevention-workers): BLS exposure Low, median $93,530

## FAQ

**Will AI replace correctional officers and jailers?**

Unlikely to be replaced, but the job is shrinking. Exposure to AI is moderate, below the middle of the pack, and BLS projects employment to fall for reasons that are not mainly AI. BLS defines exposure as AI being able to assist with or complete some of the work, and says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains or wage effects. BLS projects employment to fall by 7.4% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 28,400 openings a year.

**How exposed are correctional officers and jailers to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Correctional Officers and Jailers are in the moderate category, alongside 193 other occupations. The categories combine five public measures of where AI could be or already is used, and they compare occupations with each other rather than giving an absolute risk.

**What parts of a correctional officer and jailer's job can AI do?**

In O\*NET's description of the work, the parts that overlap most with what AI handles well are documenting/recording information, repeating the same tasks and processing information. The parts that hold up best are face-to-face discussions, resolving conflicts and negotiating with others and assisting and caring for others. These come from O\*NET ratings of how important each activity is to the job, read through NueCareer's AI-resilience method.

**Is being a correctional officer and jailer a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, correctional officers and jailers score 56 out of 100, higher than 75% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $58,940 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No job is fully safe from technological change, but the federal exposure category and the projected openings are the two numbers worth weighing.

**What careers similar to correctional officers and jailers are less exposed to AI?**

Firefighter (low exposure, $59,280 median), First-Line Supervisor of Firefighting and Prevention Workers (low exposure, $93,530 median). Each is in a lower BLS exposure category than correctional officers and jailers, and most are listed by O\*NET as related to the work.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/correctional-officer-and-jailer.

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This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology