The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services is short hundreds of prison officers and has requested additional mental health experts.

His comment to reporters followed the opening ceremony of a prison staff empowerment seminar at Faith United Baptist Church.

“There is shortage across the entire service,” he said. “You would have seen that immigration has recruited the largest class ever. Customs is going to have to do it. The police is doing it, the prison is doing it. They’re currently finishing up the psychological analysis, vetting of the potential recruits and we hope to bring in adequate recruits by the end of this month.”

Mr Munroe later told The Tribune that automated services at the anticipated 700-bed, high medium security facility –– which is projected to be completed 18-24 months after construction starts –– would dramatically reduce the number of required officers. Without automation the correctional facility will need hundreds more officers, he said. With the service, the facility will only need ten.

“Every year a certain number of people retire,” he had told reporters earlier. “The police told me 96 officers are set to retire. Then some people get ill and go out of service. Some people die, some are actually dismissed from the service. So in the police services, we lose about 100, 110 officers a year so if you only recruit 100, you actually go down by 10 so that is why you have to be mindful of those things and we are being mindful of them.”

Mr Munroe said Acting Corrections Commissioner Don Cleare has requested two additional psychiatrists, a psychologist and a child mental health expert for the facility.

“So aggressively,” he said, “the prime minister indicated funding the training of prison officers. We are not certified as a correctional institution because you have to have certified correctional officers to be certified as a correctional institution. We intend to correct and address that.”