North Carolina Department of Correction News - September 1999

Hyde sergeant a life-time crabber

Swan Quarter — His mom built crab pots. When he was 10-years-old, she traded 500 for an 18-foot wooden skiff. Odell Williams has been crabbing ever since.

A newly-promoted sergeant at Hyde Correctional Institution, Williams is glad for the steady income that the prison provides him. He’s also glad at the end of the day to put on his boots and coveralls, start the engine and head out to sea.

"It kind of gets your mind off prison," Williams said. "The water is calm and pretty, and you can make good money during the peak of the season."

Williams owns two crab boats. He and a partner check 500 crab pots a day. They use a wench to pull the cages up from the ocean bottom, and the unlucky crabs who took the bait aren't released from the wire meshing until the crabbers open a latch and shake them into a wooden box. This season, Williams and his partner have been catching 1,200 pounds a day. The crustaceans are sold at the marina shortly after the boat docks.

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When he's not working at Hyde Correctional Institution, Odell Williams can be found crabbing.

Weather permitting, Williams crabs every day but Sunday. If it’s too windy to go out, Williams has a small mowing business as well.

Superintendent Derrick Wadsworth said Williams is one of the most solid officers at Hyde. "He’s very ethical, and a lot of that comes from the down-home upbringing."

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Williams owns two crab boats which he uses to check 500 crab pots a day.		 Williams thinks Hyde Correctional Institution is the best thing that ever happened in the county. His philosophy working with inmates is: Tell the truth; be firm, fair and consistent. "I try to treat inmates like anyone else until they show they have to be treated otherwise," Williams said.

When he isn't supervising inmates, pulling up crab pots, or mowing lawns, Williams is volunteering. During Swan Days in November when 30,000 tundra swan came to Lake Mattamuskeet, he volunteered as a tour guide. During the April Bike-A-Thon, he manned an out-post for the bikers. At Christmas time, he volunteered to drive to the military base in Morehead City to pick up and deliver donations to needy families.

The smell of the sea is in his blood, however. Just as he did as a school child, studying and crabbing, Williams managed to do the same while studying for the sergeant’s exam. He vows he’s going to continue doing both jobs until he stops enjoying them. He said the prison job is not at all stressful, because he doesn’t let the inmates wear on him. He just keeps reading the policy manuals. "The more you know, the more you grow," Williams said. u

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