Awards and Appreciation

CMC Recruitment Team takes top honors

Men and women stand against a wall while holding a certificate.
From left are Correctional Officer Ricardo Ancheta, CO Cai McCray, (back row) CO Douglas Nettleton, (front row) CO Orquidia Elizondo, (back row) Correctional Officer Jody Best, AGPA OPOS Guadalupe Olguin, Lt. David Scheiffele, Correctional Officer Ezekiel Gastelo, (back row) CO Matthew Cox and CO Melissa Cox.

By Lt. John Hill

The CDCR Office of Peace Officer Selection (OPOS) selected the California Men’s Colony (CMC) Recruitment Team as the Top CDCR Recruitment Team in the Central Region for 2019.

The award, which was presented to the team Jan. 17 on behalf of OPOS Chief R. Calderon, was a result of the CMC Recruitment Team’s enthusiastic representation of CDCR at various events throughout the Central Coast.

The CMC team, led by Lt. David Scheiffele, has presented at the California Mid-State Fair, the weekly San Luis Obispo Farmer’s Market, National Guard events, UC Santa Barbara, Cuesta Community College and Santa Barbara Business College. The team has also presented to high school students in the San Luis Obispo area and to the California Conservation Corps.

The team has also had the privilege of presenting at the Grizzly Youth Academy, an academy for at-risk youth offenders. While presenting at the Grizzly Youth Academy, the team encouraged the youths to seek opportunity for success in their own lives by considering a career in law enforcement as a path to that success.

The ability to recruit employees from areas located near CDCR facilities is imperative when it comes to stabilizing the workforce within CDCR. In the simplest of terms, if a recruited employee lives in the area of an existing CDCR facility, there is no need to transfer or relocate when hired by CDCR to work at that facility.