Nursing Workforce

What will the Correctional Nursing nursing workforce look like in 2020? In 2030?

Correctional nursing is a vital yet often misunderstood specialty across healthcare, including within nursing itself. In 2022, an estimated 63,746 registered nurses provided care to 1.9 million incarcerated people across:

1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails
1,323 juvenile facilities, 142 immigration detention centers, 80 Indian Nation jails
Plus military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and U.S.
territory prisons

The U.S. spends at least $182 billion annually on this system. Importantly, this RN estimate excludes LPN/LVN nurses, so the true correctional nursing workforce is larger. Today, carceral systems depend on these nurses.

Nursing Workforce Resources:

State of the world’s nursing 2025

Unlocking the Value of Nursing in Health Care (2024)

International Council of Nurses- Recover to Build (2023)

National League for Nursing Healthful Work Environment Toolkit© (2018)

2024 Public Health Learning Forum: Workforce Development in Action

nurse-staffing-task-force-imperatives-recommendations-and-actions.pdf

Healthy Work Survey – Employers | Healthy Work Campaign

National Training, Education, and Workforce Survey (NTEWS) - NTEWS

Can RNs Help with the Corrections Nurse Shortage?

Jail Healthcare Staffing in the US Southeast: a Cross-Sectional Survey

Nurse Staffing at State Prisons-Legislative Report- NC

Why jails and prisons can’t recruit their way out of the understaffing crisis

Distribution and Specialties of Broadly Versus Narrowly Defined Public Health Nurses Working in Government Settings in the United States, 2022

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We are home to information, opportunities and educational programs for all licensed nurses and students at any stage of their career development for the specialty of Nursing in Correctional Healthcare.