Glossary
Correctional Officer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential correctional officer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key correctional officer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in correctional officer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Booking
- Processing people into jail.
- Classification
- Assigning housing based on risk.
- Contraband
- Prohibited items.
- Count
- A required check that everyone is accounted for.
- Escort
- Moving people within or outside the facility.
- Housing unit
- A living area in a facility.
- Incident report
- A written record of an event.
- Lockdown
- Restricting movement during emergencies.
- PREA
- Prison Rape Elimination Act.
- Restraints
- Handcuffs and other control devices.
- Sally port
- A secure entry with two doors.
- Segregation
- Separating people for safety or discipline.
- Shakedown
- A thorough search of a cell or area.
- Suicide watch
- Close monitoring of at-risk people.
- Use of force continuum
- Guidelines for appropriate force.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Correctional Officer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Correctional Officer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.