The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

OFFICIALS at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services at Fox Hill yesterday described the completion of a 40-unit dormitory complex as the “dawn of a new era”. The newly constructed training facility will host between 80 and 120 potential officers during the department’s next recruiting cycle.

National Security Minister Dr Bernard Nottage said the completion of the complex was a “critical element” in the department’s future plans and would aid in the development and expansion of the organisation.

“This is an element that will assist the department in producing more skilled officers in the future,” Dr Nottage said. “New recruits will now have an opportunity to study and train in a comfortable setting.”

Department of Correctional Services commissioner, Patrick P Wright, said the opportunity to train and prepare officers for duty in a confined and conducive environment was “something the department really needed”. Mr Wright said: “Officers now have the opportunity to come in, train and live all at one facility. In the past it was very taxing on some of our recruits who had a number of classes throughout the day and had to journey back and forward throughout the day. They are now granted the opportunity to remain on the compound for the entirety of the training.

“This is also a major benefit to recruits coming in from the Family Islands; they are now able to come in and train without the additional cost of boarding, that is now available here on the compound.”

Bahamas Prisons Association (BPA) president, Gregory Archer, said that the new facility would enhance the way future officers are trained. “This facility will assure that officers have a place to live during training without any overhead expenses,” he said. “This complex will work exactly how the Royal Bahamas Police Force training facility works.”

According to Commissioner Wright, the training dormitory – located next to Her Majesty’s Prison – will receive its first cycle of recruits in the fall of 2015. “We are now canvassing for recruits, we now have a shortlist that is going through the process of qualifying in terms of their medicals and fitness levels. I have the okay from the government for 100 recruits that would be covered under the 2015-2016 fiscal budget. This complex can hold between 80-120 recruits.”

Mr Wright said: “The Bahamas Department of Correctional Services has signed a memorandum of understanding with Canada; we have agreements in place with the Broward County department in Florida in an effort to improve the level of work being executed here at our facility.”

The completion of the complex marked another accomplishment on the list of measures detailed in the 2013 Correctional Services Bill, which mandated major reforms in the nation’s prison system.

The Bill allowed the prison system to be renamed the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, new leadership including a commissioner, a deputy commissioner and an assistant to the deputy.