North Carolina Department of Correction news release

Brame Named Department of Correction Employee of the Year

NOVEMBER 5, 1997

BLACK MOUNTAIN - Correction Secretary Mack Jarvis has named a 25-year veteran of the Department of Correction the 1997 Employee of the Year. Renae Brame, superintendent of Black Mountain Correctional Center for Women, was honored at a reception in Raleigh Oct. 28. She was selected from a pool of 18,000 correctional employees.

"Ms. Brame’s numerous talents and skills have been a tremendous asset to the Department of Correction," said Secretary Jarvis. "She’s energetic, dedicated and a model employee who is highly-respected across the state. I’m proud to bestow this honor upon such a deserving person."

Brame, who is also a 1997 nominee for the Governor’s Awards for Excellence, has been supervising the Black Mountain prison since 1989. She has a long list of accomplishments.

Brame spearheaded a campaign to raise $16,000 in private funds to construct a chapel and multipurpose room at the prison. Brame designed a stained glass window in the chapel. She also established the first Community Service Project in the Department of Correction. Selected inmates and staff annually work alongside Prison Fellowship volunteers to renovate and repair the homes of elderly and low-income residents. Brame also started a Mother-Child Retreat at the prison. This program allows inmate mothers (accompanied by volunteers) to spend quality time with their minor children at a local retreat center.

Black Mountain Correctional Center for Women is a minimum custody prison housing 70 inmates.

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