By Keoki Kerr
Hawaii News Now
HONOLULU — State Public Safety Director Ted Sakai has suspended recruitment of new corrections officers and postponed the start of the latest recruit class to beef up testing and training of the people who work in state prisons, Hawaii News Now learned Wednesday. The situation has caused some recruits to be paid by the state without going to work.
After numerous errors by corrections officers resulted in the escape of murder suspect Teddy Munet last month, Sakai said he needed to move quickly.
“We want people who are, number one, better qualified to do this professional job as correctional officer. Number two, we’re going to put them through a pretty rigorous training program,” Sakai said. “Recent events have brought this whole issue into sharp focus and I felt that we simply have to make a change. We have to make the change now.”
So he’s suspending recruitment for up to three months, while the department creates application tests that do not exist now, for a job that does not require a high school diploma.
Full story: EXCLUSIVE: State prisons suspend correction officer recruitment, delay training class