HONOLULU (AP) — Three correctional officer recruits from Maui have been dropped from their training course after they were involved in a stabbing outside a Honolulu strip club.
A group of about a half dozen prison guard trainees told authorities they had been drinking at the strip club on Feb. 4 when they were attacked by two men outside. The violence happened during the first week of the training class, Hawaii News Now reported on Monday (http://bit.ly/1UxzGu0).
Officials said two recruits were stabbed, but three were deemed medically unable to continue training.
“People need to be in the class in order to complete it, if they were unable to be in the class, they probably have to take an opportunity in the future to try and try again,” said Nolan Espinda, director of the state Public Safety Department. “But we can’t have people missing an integral part of our training.”
An investigation will determine whether the recruits will be able to take another training class once they have recovered, said Espinda.
State public safety officials said the current prison guard recruit class has lost five trainees for medical reasons, the same number of recruits who were dropped in the past four classes last year. Three of those recruits were let go for academic failure, one for medical reasons and one resigned to accept another job.
Graduation completion rates are 94 percent for the last five corrections officer classes, according to officials.