The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department recently graduated 36 new officers from the Correction Officer Training Academy (COTA) in Chelsea, swearing them into the corrections profession during a ceremony held at the Aloft Boston Seaport Hotel, amongst family, friends and Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department officials.

The former trainees successfully completed a rigorous training academy that required intensive instruction in several subjects that included: ethics and professionalism, inmate education and programming, fire safety, CORI and inmate rights and responsibilities, sexual harassment, repot writing, and more.

They also received physical training that involved proper use of force and defensive tactics. Through this combination of academics and physical training, the members of COTA Class 18-01 worked to develop and hone skills that will be critical to their assignments over the course of their careers with the Department.

Award recipients for COTA Class 18–01 included: Tevin Stowers, Academic Award; Vanessa Tavares, Defensive Tactics Award; Adena Joseph, Drill Instructors Award; and Kyle McCabe and Parris Massey, Unit Citation Award.

The other members of COTA Class 18–01 are: Darimilson Andrade, Cyre Barbour, Trinece Benson, Israel Bracho, Flint Davenport, Darryl Davis, Isaias Espinal, Brian Forbes,Gino Gallo, Jeremy Glawson, Alecea Gunn, Richard Guzokski, Nicholas Jimenez,  Nelson Kadey, Christine Lopez, Evan Lorfils, Mark Loud, Soriya Mai, Andrew Mellor, Jessica Milord, Christopher Nye, Marissa O’Brien, Eric Pham, Sheri Philbrook, Isaac Phillips, Stephony Reeves, Daequan Rogers, Hector Ruiz, Johan Taborda, Samuel Watson, Anna Wong and Trevor Wright.

All 36 officers are now serving at the Suffolk County House of Correction.