The Bahamas Department of Corrections hosted a one-day employee recruitment exercise on Thursday, February 2, 2023 with the hopes of hiring 20 people.

Held at the CA Smith Building from 9am to 3pm, the exercise was the second to be held on the island. The first, some six years ago, yielded no results.

It was anticipated that between 30 and 40 people would be interviewed.

Acting Commissioner of Corrections, Doan Cleare, said it was an exercise where qualified people could be hired on the spot.

“We have visited most of the islands of The Bahamas and some of the islands that we didn’t visit, we had interviews done by video conferencing. Grand Bahama, we know, is somewhat challenged since the hurricane (Dorian) so we also went to Abaco to try and get people there.”

Grand Bahama, he continued, has close to 150 inmates at the Bahamas Department of Corrections and to date, there are no officers from the island.

Successful applicants will begin training in mid-March when they will not only receive a salary, but food and housing for the duration of training. They will be responsible for their own housing after training.

Referring to the response on Thursday, he said the approach to recruitment differed as the use of social media, churches and the Ministry for Grand Bahama were utilized.

The overall recruitment exercise hopes to bring on 100 new recruits with 30 females and 70 males. Of these, BDOC is looking for 50 percent from New Providence and 50 percent from the Family Islands.

 Having started two months ago, in addition to Grand Bahama they have travelled to Andros, Eleuthera, Cat Island, Exuma, Bimini and Long Island; and the southern islands were included via video conferencing.

Also present was Detrice McCardy, BDOC’s public relations director who said that not only will recruits start with a base salary of $18,000 but will also receive medical benefits including health and dental, in addition to a uniform allowance.

Quaide Robinson from Human Resources at BDOC was present to check the required documents of applications before they moved on to the next stage of the screening process. Once the applicants meet the qualifications, there is a security vetting process they must clear prior to being hired.

This exercise will end on February 14.