Online Corrections Degree

Online Corrections Degree

There are a number of career options you can pursue with an online corrections degree. As a corrections officer, you function as a guard overseeing facilities, keeping tabs on inmates, keeping order and preventing disturbances, assaults, and escapes at correctional facilities.


Bailiffs keep order and maintain the safety of the courtroom. They commonly assist judges, guard juries, deliver documents, and enforce the rules of the courtroom. Other positions in management and administration are also available.

Often a high school diploma is all that is necessary to get a job as a corrections officer, however, an associates degree means you are far more likely to advance into higher-paying positions. In fact, to be an officer in a federal prison, you must actually hold a bachelors degree. Furthermore, many of the top positions will obviously seek higher educated individuals, particularly those with bachelors or even masters degrees. Needless-to-say, while you earn an online corrections degree, you should expect classes in criminal law, forensics science, victimology, and others.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment growth for correctional officers is expected to be higher-than-average at 16-percent, through 2016. Annual median salary expectations are almost $37,000 with officers at federal institutions earning the most, usually around $62,000. Other corrections-related jobs such as bailiffs earned almost $37,000 and demand for them is expected to grow steadily at 17-percent. Correctional officer supervisors should experience 13-percent growth and the annual median salary for them in 2007 was almost $56,000.