At the local government level, a jailer, also known as a correctional officer or gaoler, is in charge of monitoring and caring for inmates. Typically, these inmates are being held for short periods of time while awaiting trial, have been convicted of minor offenses, or are about to be transferred to a prison for long-term detention. Other common jailor responsibilities include filing paperwork on inmates, transporting them to and from court, and overseeing visitors who come to see the inmate.
According to the national Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jailers in the United States processed 13,000,000 people per year in 2010, with nearly 800,000 being held in jails at any given time. Because a jail is typically designed to hold a prisoner for a year or less, far more detainees are processed through jails than through prisons. According to the Office of the Superintendent of Prisons, there were 1,600,000 Americans incarcerated in 2010.
Although a jailer has authority over inmates and is responsible for maintaining order within the confines of the jail, they do not have any law enforcement responsibilities outside of the jail in the United States or other countries. They are not sworn officers who are obligated to uphold civilian laws like state police officers. They frequently share many of the responsibilities of a local government filing clerk in this regard, including fingerprinting, photographing, and processing suspects into the criminal justice system. They also prepare meals for the inmates, search them for weapons or other contraband, and see to their medical needs.
The demand for gaolers or jailers is usually determined by society’s proclivity for imprisoning people. Because the United States’ population per capita is so much higher than that of most other industrialized countries, the occupation of jailer is on the rise in the United States, with estimates of a 9% increase in the jailer field between 2008 and 2018. According to a 2008 study, there are 751 people in prison in the United States for every 100,000 people in the population, whereas there are 627 people in prison in Russia, which has the second highest incarceration rate on the list. Other comparable countries had far lower incarceration rates and, as a result, far lower demand for jailers, with England incarcerating 151 people per 100,000, Germany 88, and Japan 63.
Local jailer responsibilities vary depending on how overcrowded a system is, as a jailer may also be in charge of detained foreign nationals. In early 2011, Romania began informing other European Union members that it had no room for Romanian citizens detained in other EU countries who were scheduled to be returned to Romania. According to European Union law, prisoners held by a foreign jailer can serve their sentence in their home country, close to their families. Romanian citizens in jails in Italy, Spain, and France, as well as Germany, the UK, and Austria have all requested transfers back to local Romanian jails.