By C1 Staff
ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. — Applicants for the Escambia County’s highest corrections position have been narrowed down to six.
The Pensacola News Journal reports that seventeen originally applied to replace current Director of Corrections Gordon Pike, who is retiring this month.
A five-person committee met at the county building on Monday to review resumes.
The director of corrections oversees the budgeting and administrative functions of the jail and community control programs such as probation and work release.
In addition to those regular duties, the incoming director will be tasked with securing permanent housing for hundreds of inmates who were displaced by a natural explosion at the main jail in April.
They will also need to correct understaffing and policy concerns during a year-long DOJ investigation of the main jail.
The candidates at this point include Jail Commander Brett Whitlock, former Chief Deputy Larry Aiken and Community Corrections Division Manager Tammie Booker; Clifford Tebbitt, a jail administrator from Scott County Iowa; Michael Tidwell, a former Orange County (Fla.) corrections chief; and Jesse Williams, a regional deputy director from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
The first round of interviews is tentatively set for the week of Nov. 24.