BY Adam Ambro
How to increase awareness of correctional facilities jobs?
Ben Mendoza, a sales assistant from E.W. Scripps, has been using AdMall for five years during his sales career. Mendoza has won multiple Sell Smarter! awards. When it was time to position a recruiting ad campaign sale, he needed something different.
“The [account] is the State of Colorado, and our main contact is very analytical,” said Mendoza. “They like to review performance closely and look for ways to re-optimize throughout the campaign.”
“Their main challenge was getting more people to apply for open positions while also educating the public that [state-run] correctional facilities offer many different career opportunities. They needed to position CDOC [Colorado Department of Corrections] as more than just ‘jails with correctional officers,’ and show that they also have cooks and other support roles available.”
How could AdMall help?
“AdMall helped me make the campaign more specific,” said Mendoza. “Instead of treating CDOC as a general recruitment advertiser, I used [AdMall’s] Sales Coach and Shareables to better understand who we needed to reach, what messaging could matter to them, and which channels could support both awareness and action.”
“The Sales Coach helped guide my thinking around recruitment audiences, while Shareables gave me useful streaming insights to support the media mix.”
“The most helpful pieces were the audience targeting direction from Sales Coach and the streaming-related Shareables. Sales Coach helped me think through different types of job candidates, while the Shareables helped back up streaming TV as a strong awareness tactic for reaching engaged viewers.”
What was the result?
“The [recruiting campaign ad] sale amounted to $95,000 over a 12-month period,” said Mendoza.
“This was a fully digital campaign, so there were no traditional TV, print or radio elements included. The campaign focused on SEM, streaming TV targeted email, and display retargeting.”
You can submit your own sales success story HERE! If your story qualifies for an AdMall Sell Smarter Award, you'll receive a $75 Amazon e‑gift card.
More About: Correctional Institutions and Services
Industry revenue for correctional facilities (publicly operated facilities plus private operators contracted by government) is estimated at about $9 billion, down from 2020 as the sector has shrunk at a compound annual decline rate of roughly 3.6% over the past five years. There are about 350 businesses in the U.S. correctional facilities industry, with the number of operators declining about 1.4% annually since 2020 as smaller operators consolidate or exit.
Demand is driven less by traditional crime trends and more by incarceration policy, sentencing practices, probation and parole decisions, and immigration enforcement. The national incarceration rate has fallen about 7.6% over the past five years, which has directly reduced demand for higher security beds and forced operators to cut costs and pursue new revenue streams.
Services include both residential and nonresidential services. Additional services include education, counseling, medical care, recreational activities, counseling, and access to religious and legal services. Critics of these prisons say not enough educational training or counseling is provided. Therefore, offenders have a higher recidivism rate.
The U.S. Parole Commission (USPC) provides services and programs to facilitate inmates’ successful reintegration into society, consistent with community expectations and standards. Courts often turn to private probation management firms to save money. These firms are allowed to charge individuals with the cost of managing them, monitoring them and testing them for drugs. The industry has come under heavy criticism for running up fees and interest and sending some of the people they’re supposed to help back to jail. In some states and jurisdictions, a return to publicly managed probation is underway.
The main difference between the two types of prisons comes down to money. Each for-profit facility or institution houses people who violated the law. They are run by private, third-party companies rather than the state or federal government.
