Criminal Justice And Social Work

Information last updated February 2026

Criminal justice social workers—also prison social workers, or correctional social workers as they are sometimes called—are social workers whose clients are, have been, or may soon be incarcerated.

Social workers in criminal justice settings have three fundamental ethical and professional obligations: to ameliorate clients’ mental health needs, to return individuals to the community who are likely to be productive, and to serve the interests of public safety.

Prisons are a challenging place to work and social workers have had to fight in order to win a measure of influence in this complicated environment. Until the 1970s, incarceration rates in American prisons were relatively stable. Over the last few decades, incarceration has climbed sharply, and the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy, with roughly 2 million people confined on any given day based on the latest national “whole pie” estimates released in 2025 by the Prison Policy Initiative. In terms of reentry outcomes, national federal data also show high rates of post-release justice-system contact: a U.S. Sentencing Commission analysis published in February 2024 found that 44.4% of a national cohort (individuals released from incarceration or starting probation in 2015, with at least one criminal history point) were rearrested within three years. 

With this high prison churn, social workers play a key role in reducing recidivism and supporting prisoners as they work to transition back into civil society.

Criminal justice social work includes the following responsibilities:

According to NASW, criminal justice reform is one of the profession’s core social justice priorities, reflecting an ongoing push for social workers to have a stronger role in policy advocacy and the delivery of services across the legal system. At present, the daily tasks a prison social worker might undertake include conducting psychosocial assessments, providing counseling or other evidence-based interventions, coordinating medical and mental health release planning, and connecting incarcerated people to community resources that support reentry. This work can also include supporting family members impacted by incarceration and coordinating with community systems, such as child welfare agencies, around custody, guardianship, or family reunification planning when children are involved.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), correctional treatment specialists earn a median annual salary of $64,520 (May 2024). Wages typically range from less than $45,390 for the lowest 10% of earners to more than $106,290 for the highest 10%, depending on education, experience, and employer.