completion of their five week long training session.

Prison Commissioner Edward Dyer attended the short passing out parade at the Prison Officers Club in Dockyard and handed out a warning of his own.

The nine men may have completed their initial training, he said, but "their real training is yet to come''.

Later Mr. Dyer explained that the men's real training would begin once they began working in the different facilities.

And he added that the recruits would fill vacancies left by officers resigning or retiring and were not new positions.

Chief Officer Ella-Grace Goodchild said there was only so much prison officer training that could be done in a classroom.

This training would provide the foundation upon which the officers would "build experience upon experience'' that they gleaned from their practical training in the facilities.

Ms Goodchild said the officers would now learn to cope with the different circumstances that the variety of incarcerated individuals would present them with.

During their five weeks of training, the officers learned about security, searching techniques, conducting escorts and inter-personal communication skills.

Ms Goodchild added that the department considered personal management skills to be of "prime importance''.

The Prisons Recruitment Class for 1996 are Gerald Bean, Ryan Belboda, Philip Durham, Ellison Gilbert, Lawrence King, Damion McIntosh, Millard Rawlins, Edward Rewan and Onslow Virgil.