50-plus years of service.

Several weeks ago, Marian Olson received a letter from a woman who had been sentenced to the Wisconsin School for Girls in the 1970s. She had "done all right for herself," she wrote, and was married and had three sons who were enrolled in a vocational training school. And it reminded her of when she was at the Wisconsin School for Girls, learning food preparation and cooking from Mrs. Olson.

Although the school was closed in 1976 and Olson no longer teaches home economics, she is still making an impact on her students, now men sentenced to the minimum security Oakhill Correctional Institution.

"In her 50 years as a teacher in corrections, Mrs. Olson has diligently instructed thousands of incarcerated juveniles and adults with but one goal in mind: the betterment of each individual student," says Michael Sullivan, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC). "Not only is she dedicated, but she garners the respect of the inmates and they really listen to what she has to say. She's just an amazing individual."

Olson didn't start out in corrections. In the 1940s, she taught home economics at several high schools in Wisconsin and Washington, but then took a job at the Wisconsin School for Girls when her husband began teaching at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Back then, the girls under her care were not really bad kids, "they just hadn't had supervision or had gotten out of hand," Olson says. She taught them how to keep a home, and her classes cooked for the staff and the social workers. After 30 years of teaching delinquent girls, the school closed and the buildings were converted into a minimum security institution for men. Olson stayed on, teaching tailoring for the next 10 years. In 1985, the institution suffered program cutbacks and decided they didn't need the tailoring program. But again, Olson stayed on, to teach academics.

"I really like this work, and since my husband died when he wasn't very old, there was no reason for me to stay home and do nothing," she says. "Teaching at a correctional facility is easier in a lot of ways than teaching in the public schools. We always have security, and here, the men are accomplishing things that they wouldn't do on the outside. They realize how important it is for them to get an education, for their families and for their children."

These days, Olson primarily helps prepare the inmates for their high school equivalency diplomas (HSED). Officially, she has 32 men enrolled in the program at any one time. But she also encourages others who can't attend the classes to study on their own, and she facilitates their testing for the HSED.

Her commitment to her students has earned her their respect and gratitude, and they often keep in touch with the teacher who believed in them. "I had two girls who are now registered nurses, and other girls have families or children and they've gone to college and are now social workers. I know of at least one who's a teacher," she says.

Has it been worth it? "Whenever you're satisfied with what you're doing, it makes your life worthwhile," Olson says. "I think about retiring, but it would depend on the circumstances. If I ever feel that I'm not doing what I should be doing, then I'll retire."

Gabrielle deGroot is managing editor of Corrections Today.