The Correctional Services Agency has added 46 new staff members to its ranks, the Home Affairs Ministry said on Friday.

The new recruits all underwent a 16-week intensive training course that combined academic education with first-aid skills, fire extinguishing courses and mental health training provided in collaboration with the Richmond Foundation.

They were inducted into the CSA in the course of a ceremony held at Corradino prison on Thursday evening. Of the 46 new recruits, 12 - or 26 per cent - are women.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, who presided over their induction ceremony, told the recruits that they are not only prison guards but also agents of rehabilitation. Their job, he told them, was not any ordinary one, but rather a vocation.

“Work to ensure that people who serve time here return to society as better people,” Camilleri told them.

Agency CEO Christopher Siegersma highlighted the work that two NGOs, RiSe and Mid-Dlam għad-Dawl, do within prison.

It was crucial, he told the new recruits, that they showed respect to both their own colleagues as well as prison inmates.

“Sometimes, a single word can make all the difference to somebody who is in here,” the CEO told them.

Magdylon Briffa was awarded a prize as the star recruit after he obtained the highest marks throughout recruitment training.