COLUMBIA – The South Carolina Department of Corrections today named Julian Greenaway of McCormick Correctional Institution the agency’s 2009 Correctional Officer of the Year.

Greenaway began his career with Corrections in 2005 at Lower Savannah Pre-Release Center in Aiken and transferred to McCormick about three and a half years ago. The maximum-security institution is located in McCormick County near the town of McCormick.

Greenaway works in the institution’s Special Management Unit, which houses inmates separated from the general population because of assaultive behavior, disciplinary infractions or for personal protection. He also serves on the agency’s Special Operations Response Team, or SORT, which is trained to contain crisis situations within the prison system and regain control through force.

Greenaway edged out candidates for the award from 27 other institutions.

Colleagues who nominated him said he was someone with a “positive attitude that is contagious” and “who always goes beyond the call of duty.” A resident of Augusta, Ga., Greenaway has been pastor of the Word of Life Ministries church there for more than 10 years.

He also is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

“I like the fact that we can rehabilitate, work one-on-one with inmates and make a positive difference in inmates’ lives,” Greenaway said following an award ceremony at Corrections’ training academy in Columbia.

Corrections also recognized the following employees for their distinguished and tireless service to the state of South Carolina:
-         Correctional Officer Supervisor of the Year – Maj. Sharonda Sutton, Broad River Correctional Institution
-         Employee of the Year – Monica Wallace, coordinator of the Contract Labor Crew/Work Release Programs
-         Supervisor of the Year – Alice Mascio, supervisor of the Central Visitation Office and Inmate Drug Testing Program for the Inspector General’s Office
-         Division Manager of the Year – Ann Gaston, Director of Classification and Inmate Records Division
-         Institution Manager of the Year – John Pate, associate warden of Allendale Correctional Institution