What is on the NYS DOCCS Correction Captain written test?
Three subject areas, named verbatim by DOCCS's own current archived exam announcement — and, unlike Sergeant and Lieutenant, no emergency/security area at all.
- Test type
- Written multiple choice
- Subject areas
- Three
- Administered by
- NYS DOCCS, for DOCCS employees only
- Item count / duration
- Not published
The three subject areas
The Department's own archived posting for exam 31-121020 lists them this way:
- Administrative supervision in a correctional facility — directing subordinate staff through subordinate supervisors, investigating staff misconduct, delegating authority, and managing staff resources and morale.
- Rules, regulations, and procedures relevant to the operation of a correctional facility — knowledge of DOCCS directives, presented in a situational format.
- Writing Skills for Correction Captains — detecting grammar, punctuation and sentence-structure errors; choosing the clearest, most accurate restatement of information; and organizing sentences into a coherent paragraph.
Why there is no emergency-and-security area
Sergeant's and Lieutenant's own announcements both name a fourth area, Controlling Emergency Situations and Maintaining Security. Captain's does not, confirmed by reading the raw announcement text directly and searching it for the word 'emergency' — zero matches. This tracks the Captain title's own stated duties: an executive officer, under a Deputy Superintendent for Security Services, directing security STAFF through subordinate Lieutenants, one organizational layer removed from the post-level emergency response Sergeants and Lieutenants are tested on directly.
What DOCCS does not publish
No item count. No time allowance. No weighting between the three areas. No passing score for this administration. Seniority credit (one credit per five-year period, excluding the first year) and wartime veterans' credit are added to a passing score afterward.