N.C. Department of
Correction--Correction News--February 1998
The wizard of Combined Records,
Hazel Keith, Retires after 46 years
Wake Forest - Hazel Keith,
the feisty, lovable manager of Combined Records who many inmates
revered like the Wizard of Oz with all her time calculations,
retired in January.
Following eye surgery last August,
Keith's doctor said she shouldn't continue doing the heavy
reading that her work required. She reluctantly gave up the job
that she has loved for 46 years.
"Hazel Keith is
an icon to us," Correction Secretary Mack Jarvis
said. "She did a fantastic job maintaining accurate
records while helping judges, DA's, inmate families and
correction folks understand the sentencing calculations.
She will be sorely missed."
Keith began working for
the department in 1951, taking a temporary secretarial
job that paid $1,440 a year. After just a couple of
weeks, a woman resigned in Combined Records and Keith was
hired for the steno job. At that time, prisons were under
the Highway Department, and 25 people worked for the
Division of Prisons located in the basement of the
Highway Building. The prison system had about 5,000
inmates.
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In Dec. 1955, the division moved
to the Randall Building which was only two stories high. The
third floor was later added for the Parole Commission.
When Keith was promoted to clerk,
she asked her boss if he was trying to get rid of her, because
she loved doing shorthand. However, in her new job, she was able
to put her math skills to work and began calculating inmate time,
a job she truly loved.
Back in those early days, Combined
Records used slide drawers to keep all the inmate records.
Computations were done by hand and the FBI reports had to be
typed and copies sent to the units.
In 1978, Keith was made manager of
Combined Records. She said that after working so long, she could
tell if something seemed fishy or funny. One inmate had been
given life for a breaking and entering, and Keith knew there was
no such term for a B&E. She called the Forsyth County
Courthouse where it was discovered that someone had forged the
commitment papers.
Sometimes judges would call Keith
from the courtroom to ask about sentencing calculations. Her
favorite was Judge Robert Hobgood of Louisburg.
"Hazel Keith is the
quintessential authority on sentencing laws," Judge Hobgood
said. "She knows more about the sentencing laws of North
Carolina than any other human being." Hobgood said Keith
could answer any questions about the last five sentencing laws
with the snap of a finger, and that she was able to convey that
information so gracefully, that, "She made you feel like you
knew it after all," Hobgood said. "Her knowledge of the
system is irreplaceable. If Hazel Keith says it, it must be
so."
Director of Prisons Dan Stieneke
agreed, saying, "As long as I have been with the Department,
the name Hazel Keith has been synonymous with
organization, efficiency and dedication to duty. Ms. Keith has
effectively managed records for this agency from note cards to
digital technology."
"When we went to computers, I
figured I wouldn't even have a job because the computer would
take over," Keith said at her Wake Forest home. "But,
we had to go back and check behind the computer system."
Recently, when the longest serving
inmate, Frank Wetzel, asked who had calculated his time and was
told it was Hazel Keith, he reportedly said, "It couldn't
have been her because she was here when I got here."
Although Keith worked in the
shadow of Central Prison, she never passed through its gates. The
only prisons she ever visited were Caledonia and Johnston. Keith
was too busy calculating inmate time.
"I just loved it so
much," Keith said. "It was a challenge. It helped me
mentally."
Keith has a new focus in her life.
On Dec. 30, Keith became a great-grandmother with the birth of
7-lb. Zachery Daniel.
NC DOC Correction News- February 1998
NC Department of Correction News
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