Four Big Island Correctional Officers Among Class 16-01 Graduates

Graduates Oath of Duty. Department of Public Safety photo.

Four Big Island adult corrections officers were among a new class of officers welcomed at a graduation ceremony on Friday.

The ceremony, held on Oahu, has 27 recruits from Basic Corrections Recruit Class 16-01.

Three officers will be assigned to Hawai’i Community Correctional Center, and one has been assigned to the Kulani Correctional Facility.

“These individuals chose a unique and challenging career path. The job of a corrections officer in a prison or jail is one of the toughest jobs anyone can do, but it can also be rewarding too,” says Sergeant Dzuong Le, BCRC Sergeant in Charge. “As corrections officers, we are held to a higher standard. I know these men and women have what it takes to hold up that standard with professionalism, integrity, and fairness.”

Each of the 27 officers completed a nine-week training with 360 hours of classroom and physical training. Training included standard of conduct, professionalism and ethics, along with report writing, interpersonal communications, maintaining security, crisis intervention, security threat groups (gangs), firearms, self-defense tactics, and physical exercise.

All incoming classes received recruit field training, which included going in the facility and beginning their jobs with the guidance of their training sergeants.

Seven graduates were placed at the Oahu Community Correctional Center, six at Maui Community Correctional Center, four at the Women’s Community Correctional Center, four at the Halawa Correctional Center, and one at Waiawa Correctional Center.