Correctional Officers Graduate from Search and Detection Course

Correctional officers are now better equipped to execute search and detection operations at the island’s penal institutions, having participated in a two-week training course at the Caribbean Search Centre in Twickenham Park, St. Catherine. Thirty-one senior level correctional officers participated in the Advanced Search and Detection Management course, complementing an earlier two-week programme for lower ranked officers.
Deputy Director of the Caribbean Search Centre, Captain Ezra Bignall, who spoke to JIS News at the graduation ceremony held on Friday (Nov.11), said that in the Centre’s four-year history, several courses have been held to benefit the police, the military, the correctional services and customs. He noted that on the initiative of the Commissioner of Corrections, there has been a special focus on the correctional services over the past two years, with officers being trained to carry out systemized and thorough vehicular, building, area and body searches.
“The courses enable the correctional officers to understand the new concepts developed and have a better appreciation of systematic searches and better manage the whole portfolio of searching within all the institutions,” he explained.
According to Captain Bignall, on account of incarcerated persons having a lot of time on their hands, they become geniuses at concealing contraband. “They have a lot of places on the human body and within their clothes where contraband can be hidden. It is therefore incumbent on the correctional officers to remain at least two steps ahead of the prisoners,” he said, noting that this includes thinking like them in order to identify possible places of concealment. “We try to wear their shoes and where it squeezes, we will feel it, and having thought like them, the next step is to stay ahead of them,” he said.
Caption Bignall noted further that, “with the aid of specialized equipment, we are able to find most of their hiding places but we also have to use our eyes, ears and hands which are, up to now, the best equipment available to us.”
Giving the keynote address at the graduation exercise, Acting Commissioner of Police, Leon Rose said the training must be seen as part of the process to maintain law and order.
“As managers, you have to learn to counter the art of ‘ginalism’ that prisoners bring to the prisons,” he said, noting that crime had become more sophisticated and as managers, they had to always have their wits about them.
He further challenged the senior managers to be pro-active, and be willing to go the extra mile to make a positive impact on those who were wards of the state. “Believe me, you would be doing a wonderful job in ensuring the continuance of a safe and secure environment for those who are outside of our penal institutions,” he said.