Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$66,270

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$54,250 – $84,780

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

89,390

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

+3%

Growing slower than all jobs (0% to under 3.5%)

Openings a year (projected)

7,900

New jobs plus replacing people who leave

Typical education to enter

Bachelor's degree

BLS

• All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
• Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
• Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.

What the work involves

Provide social services to assist in rehabilitation of law offenders in custody or on probation or parole. Make recommendations for actions involving formulation of rehabilitation plan and treatment of offender, including conditional release and education and employment stipulations.

Main tasks

• Prepare and maintain case folder for each assigned inmate or offender.
• Gather information about offenders' backgrounds by talking to offenders, their families and friends, and other people who have relevant information.
• Interview probationers and parolees regularly to evaluate their progress in accomplishing goals and maintaining the terms specified in their probation contracts and rehabilitation plans.
• Discuss with offenders how such issues as drug and alcohol abuse and anger management problems might have played roles in their criminal behavior.
• Supervise people on community-based sentences, such as electronically monitored home detention, and provide field supervision of probationers by conducting curfew checks or visits to home, work, or school.
• Investigate alleged parole violations, using interviews, surveillance, and search and seizure.
• Recommend remedial action or initiate court action in response to noncompliance with terms of probation or parole.
• Arrange for medical, mental health, or substance abuse treatment services according to individual needs or court orders.

Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.

Getting in

Typical education to enter (BLS)

Bachelor's degree

Training once hired: moderate-term on-the-job training

O*NET Job Zone 4

Considerable preparation

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 1 programme to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

• Correctional Officers and Jailers

  $58,940 median · -7.4% projected

• Child, Family, and School Social Workers

  $59,550 median · +4.4% projected

• First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers

  $77,970 median · -2.5% projected

• Rehabilitation Counselors

  $46,850 median · +2.2% projected

• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers

  $60,280 median · +10.3% projected

• Social and Human Service Assistants

  $45,930 median · +7.4% projected