California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Reviews
Updated May 21, 2022
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Found 485 of over 511 reviews
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Pros
Cons
- "some supervisors care about what you say, and the other ones or there for a paycheck." (in 5 reviews)
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and is not affected by filters.
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- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Pros
Good camaraderie among mental health staff and a real chance to make a difference in the most underserved population. Good pay and benefits and 4 tens schedule prevent burnout.
Cons
Working with custody staff can be challenging, some of the inmates can also test you, and when staffing is low, your workload increases making it hard to keep up.
Continue reading - Former Employee, more than 10 years★★★★★
Pros
•High pay, beginning at $72,000/year after completion of 16 week academy. (During academy, paid at lower training pay scale.) •Respected occupation •Sworn peace officer, State of California •Full benefits from day one, including health, dental, optical, sick leave, vacation time accrued monthly, holiday pay, and retirement. 401K or 457 available. •Vested after 5 years •Peace Officer/Firefighter (POFF) pay scale •For new hire officers, CalPERS retirement pay accrues at 2.5% X number of years worked, at age 57. Typical career is 27 to 30 years. Minimum age 21; no upper age limit. •Opportunity to compete for advancement, or lateral transfer to Paroles Division. •33 prison locations at which to serve, distributed throughout the State of California. •Availability of overtime at overtime pay scale of 1.5 times that of straight time. •Two regular days off per week are “consecutive days,” ie, two days in a row, never split days off.
Cons
•Same risks as those incurred by all members of the law enforcement community: serious injury, or even death, resulting from inmate attack,or possible risk of exposure to tuberculosis, or of an accidental exposure to blood-borne pathogens (HIV, Hep-C.) •Some involuntary overtime, without right to refuse. •May rotate to all three shifts and weekends.
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Pros
Great Benefits, pension and Overtime
Cons
You are at the mercy of the institutional needs and can be held for involuntary overtime several times a month.
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Pros
Prison has replaced the antiquated Psychiatric hospitals of old. If you have a passion for treating trauma, psychosis, mood disorders, substance abuse, etc., etc., etc., with an interdisciplinary team of providers, CDCR will provide you with a never-ending line of patients. There are many super-qualified clinicians employees who are very passionate about delivering the highest quality of care for their patients. All employees in CDCR are Unionized, so there are many protections and benefits to being employed. Predictable salary and raises, predictable allocation of time off, etc., etc.
Cons
Clinicians who provide direct patient care are not valued. Their job duties and assignments are changed at the whim of management, their office spaces are changed whenever convenient to leadership, and work schedules are also changed whenever management wants to. There are no incentives to being passionate and going above-and-beyond; there are a lot of disincentives to doing any extra work because it increases liability upon yourself. Management is quick to criticize and blame, but they do not recognize clinicians who take-on more than their fair share. Documentation is micro-managed with little guidance or mentoring. All throughout the pandemic, local leadership minimized the risks to being present in-person, mocked those to feared the virus, and pressured clinicians to meet in-person despite having all the resources available to meet remotely. Turnover is very high despite it being a government job that usually leads to stability and longevity.
Continue reading - Current Employee, more than 10 years★★★★★
Pros
Pays a living wage and great benefits
Cons
Can be incredibly stressful and times. Mandated overtime
- Former Employee★★★★★
Pros
Flexible, Fair pay, Great Benefits.
Cons
Terrible work environment, Terrible management, very political and not much opportunity for advancement. Lack of support and high stress which makes pay not worth it.
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Pros
Work/Life Balance Benefits Salary People Environment
Cons
I don't have any con's. Coming from private, I was quite pleased with the state enviornment.
- Current Employee★★★★★
Pros
Great pay compensation and work place
Cons
Can't bring in your cellphone
- Current Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
Good benefits. Great training if your team has been on board for a while
Cons
It is possible you get transferred to a different location
- Current Employee, more than 10 years★★★★★
Pros
great pay, opportunities to work overtime
Cons
at times, life and death stressful
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California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Reviews FAQs
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has an overall rating of 3.5 out of 5, based on over 511 reviews left anonymously by employees. 57% of employees would recommend working at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to a friend and 43% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -3% over the last 12 months.
According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees rate their compensation and benefits as 4.2 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This rating has decreased by -3% over the last 12 months.
57% of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 2.9 out of 5 for work life balance, 2.9 for culture and values and 3.6 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to be coworkers, career development, benefits and the cons to be senior leadership, culture, management.
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