Going Mobile: How Transferring Can Help You Advance
Can moving on to a different facility help you move ahead in your career? Employees across the company agree that, at times, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
“Be willing to be mobile,” says CCA president and CEO Damon Hininger, who started his career as a correctional officer at Leavenworth Detention Center and became CEO just 17 years later. “Be willing to move away and work in another state that has a different facility with a different mission.”
For career-minded employees, being willing to transfer to different facilities – rather than climbing the ladder at just one facility – is an important part of personal and professional development.
Chris Penn, chief of security at Crowley County Correctional Facility, can attest to the value of being mobile. Penn joined CCA 12 years ago and has since served at five different facilities.
“I believe that transferring to a different facility is something that every CCA employee should experience,” Penn says. “I have found that transferring to a different facility expands your correctional knowledge by exposing you to new and different ways of doing things, which adds to your correctional tool box.”
Being mobile means having the opportunity to get acquainted with various facility executive teams, serve multiple partners, work with a range of inmate populations, and experience distinct facility cultures – all of which help to groom corrections professionals for career advancement.
Michael E. Miller, assistant warden at California City Correctional Center, has spent 14 years with CCA and is now at his fifth facility. He has also served on special assignments at several other facilities, all of which has made a world of difference in his career.
“Being mobile has assisted me in not only moving up in the company but also in molding who I have become as a corrections professional,” Miller says. “Each assignment has had its own set of circumstances that ultimately led to my professional growth and development. Being mobile has provided me with so many valuable life experiences that looking back I wouldn’t do a thing different.”
Many other CCA employees have found that making a move is sometimes the best career move to make.
“A person can be very successful at one facility but may find it difficult to compete for a position when other applicants have experience with multiple facilities of varying sizes and contracts,” says Karen Sharpe, CCA manager, staffing. “We have had employees move to different facilities laterally or even take a demotion just to get this valuable multiple-facility experience.”
Due to varying life circumstances, not all employees are in a position to transfer.
“We do understand that people have periods in their lives in which they are not mobile,” says Sharpe. “However, individuals who are willing to relocate and have the support of their families should certainly consider it.”
To search for job openings across the company, visit www.ccajob.com.
Upcoming Opportunities:
CCA’s Nevada Southern Detention Center is currently accepting transfer applications. The company will assume management of two additional facilities in Fla.: Graceville Correctional Facility in Graceville and Moore Haven Correctional Facility in Moore Haven. Also, CCA is expanding two of its existing Ga. facilities: Coffee Correctional Facility in Nicholls and Wheeler Correctional Facility in Alamo. Check your facility employment board regularly for announcements of available jobs at these facilities.
Are you interested in transferring to a different facility? Here are some tips that can help:
- First, ensure that you’re not only qualified but also ready to assume the responsibilities of the position.
- Whether accepting a promotion or lateral selection, employees should be willing to commit to at least a year or longer at their new facility. It takes a minimum of a full year for an employee to gain the additional experience and get all they can out of that selection.
- Employees applying for Facility Management Selection Process (FMSP) positions can apply anytime and their applications are valid for one year. FMSP positions include warden, assistant warden, chief of security and chief of unit management.
- Exempt non-FMSP positions are posted companywide on each facility employment opportunity board every Tuesday by noon. Interested employees should contact their HR managers to submit a job posting application.
- Designated facilities provide relocation assistance programs, based on the needs of those facilities. Interested employees may contact their Human Resources managers for information regarding facilities that currently have relocation assistance available.
- If you’re currently serving in a facility that will be closing, keep in mind that a list of all available exempt and non-exempt positions is posted weekly at your facility.
By DeAndra Mack
Sound Out
Daniel Mendoza at Eloy Detention Center:
I have to agree with these guys on the mobility clause. I moved from Texas to Colorado to start at CCA with the team at Crowley County Correctional Facility. I saw an opportunity back in my home state of Texas and transferred to Willacy State Jail as a Captain less than a year later. Wanting to enhance my skills and prep for a Chief's position, I again transferred, this time out to Arizona to work at Red Rock as a Unit Manager and now have been at Eloy Detention Center for two of my four years time in service. So because of all of this moving around, I have now held the positions of C/O, Correctional Counselor, Sergeant, Case Manager, Lieutenant, Unit Manager, Captain and SORT Commander.