Education advocate commits to being a lifelong learner.

A popular jail program, Basic and Secondary Education for the Incarcerated, has proven its worth in Sheboygan County, Wis. And for the past 17 years, Sharon Abel has been its greatest advocate--teaching, encouraging, writing, researching, finding community resources and forging important coalitions of support for the program.

Kevin Mueller, a community corrections field supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, said, "Sharon has demonstrated a tremendous commitment and continuous dedication to her students and the community." Abel was honored as the Correctional Education Association's Region III 2006 Teacher of the Year and was recently awarded the American Jail Association's 2008 Civilian Employee of the Year.

Employed by Lakeshore Technical College since 1991 as the instructor responsible for the adult inmate education program, Abel teaches at the Sheboygan County Detention Center. There, inmates have the opportunity to earn a GED certificate or a High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED).

Abel's interest in teaching in the Wisconsin Technical College System began when she was a student at Fox Valley Technical College, where she enjoyed tutoring learning disabled adults. Abel continued her education at Northern Michigan University, earning a bachelor's degree in secondary education (English), with a minor in business. In 1998, she earned a master's degree in career and technical education from the University of Wisconsin - Stout. Since then, Abel has earned 35 additional graduate credits, with emphases in behavior management and financial/economic literacy, from the University of Wisconsin - Platteville and Edgewood College.

Her experience as a continuing student helps Abel remain passionate about her students' achievements. She chose to continue her studies in the areas of behavior management and financial and economic literacy to understand better her students' learning styles and needs. With so many inmates in financial trouble, Abel sees a link between "poor behavior management and lack of financial literacy--and how they are linked to errors in judgment and criminal thinking." Of the goal-oriented educational program, Abel says she tries to teach that meeting small goals are incremental steps toward the achievement of larger ones: "Education is a step. For my students, the inmates, it's a step; it's not the whole staircase. But at least it's a step."

Abel is consistently upbeat, a quality noted both by students and colleagues. "I tend to see that we can each make a little bit of a difference with every individual we come into contact with. And hopefully that will have a good ripple effect. But I'm not trying to save the world. And I think that's why I've been able to last this long in the field. I didn't come in with an idealistic view of what I was going to accomplish. I've been learning as I go," Abel said, adding, "I'm a lifelong learner; I'm a student first and a teacher second--a student of life, fascinated with human behavior."

Constantly promoting community involvement in the jail program, Abel has worked with the Literacy Council of the county's Family Resource Center to provide volunteer tutors for the inmates. An important secondary benefit of classroom tutors is that "the tutors then become advocates for correctional education out in the community." Another avenue of advocacy for the program is Abel's frequent presentations at professional associations' conferences and civic organizations' events.

Since 1998, Abel has collaborated with colleague Cpl. Roy Kluss and the Eastern Shores Library System to acquire grants from the Sheboygan County Crime Prevention Fund for inmate library materials. One project that Abel shares with the library system is a book discussion program called "Fighting Hate with Literacy." Abel expects to see at least 100 inmates benefit from this special project during 2008.

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A corrections education area that Abel would like to see explored further is an educational transition/partnership between prerelease corrections and the probation/parole office. She recalls very positive teaching experiences when, for several years, she taught at the probation/parole office in Sheboygan County.

Abel and her husband, who works in law enforcement, have three children, Luther, 14; Alexandria, 13; and Moses, 6. When asked what she likes to do in her spare time, Abel's unhesitating answer was "I like to work." Upon reflection, she said she enjoys travel, and it is no surprise that she also said she loves to visit other jails and classrooms.

Glenda Beal is a contributing editor for Corrections Today.