Thou­sands are hop­ing to make a dif­fer­ence in the jus­tice sys­tem by sup­port­ing the re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion of the in­car­cer­at­ed.

Yes­ter­day, prison of­fi­cer can­di­dates en­gaged in a se­ries of as­sess­ments to eval­u­ate their suit­abil­i­ty for the po­si­tion as the week-long re­cruit­ment ex­er­cise com­menced.

Be­fore the crack of dawn, ve­hi­cles be­gan avoid­ing the shoul­der of the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way, as some ap­pli­cants told Guardian Me­dia that they be­gan lin­ing the streets as ear­ly as 4 am.

The bright and ear­ly start was an in­di­ca­tor of the over­whelm­ing re­sponse to the ex­er­cise which will be tak­ing place at the Pris­ons Sports and Recre­ation­al Club.

Se­nior Pris­ons of­fi­cials told Guardian Me­dia that be­tween 3,500 and 4,000 men from far and wide fil­tered in­to the pris­ons fa­cil­i­ty with hopes of not just earn­ing a call up to the ser­vice, but al­so mak­ing a dif­fer­ence.

The young ap­pli­cants said that de­spite the safe­ty con­cerns linked with the role, they were will­ing to lay down their lives to help re­store or­der through­out the coun­try and re­form those who have gone on the wrong path.

Ac­cord­ing to one hope­ful, Dante Evans, “The coun­try has to make a fight back against the crime and the on­ly way to make the fight back is join­ing the dif­fer­ent ser­vices.”

An­oth­er, Ka­reem Bran­don said he wants to do his part to help his coun­try.

“I just want to do my part. Things aren’t re­al­ly get­ting bet­ter in this coun­try. As I say (its) to pro­tect and serve.”

Ac­cord­ing to Nicoli Alex­is, he wants to help in­mates change their ways and make a dif­fer­ence in their lives.

“In this line of work, I be­lieve I could help re­form and re­ha­bil­i­tate the in­mates and if I can make one per­son a bet­ter per­son, I did a lot.”

Yes­ter­day’s screen­ing ex­er­cise was the first in six years as the last time to a re­cruit­ment dri­ve for the Prison Ser­vice was held back in 2017.

For Act­ing Pris­ons Com­mis­sion­er De­op­er­sad Ra­moutar, the num­ber of ap­pli­cants spoke vol­umes about how peo­ple view the prison ser­vice.

“It is amaz­ing to see how many came out on the first day whose sur­name be­gin­ning from A to D, I think per­sons re­al­ly want to make a ca­reer out of the pris­ons ser­vice and I am hap­py to see that,” he said.

Fol­low­ing yes­ter­day’s screen­ing ex­er­cise, the process of cre­at­ing a mer­it list will com­mence. Fol­low­ing this, they will de­ter­mine which can­di­dates are on their way to be­ing prison of­fi­cers.