I did some small amount of confinement work while in the military. I noticed several things: Those confined never seemed to be guilty. Some were repeat offenders. Of the very, very, very few that realized they had screwed up, but wanted to earn a second chance, most could be helped. The US Disciplinary Barracks (the then military equivalent to a penitentary) at that time had decided they could rehabilitate all but the worst offenders and return them to active duty, thereby saving the military lots of money. We often had family, especially parents, who when they came to visit made sure to admonish us to make sure the inmate was made to tow the line.
Conclusions on my part: If you can't admit you are wrong, there is nothing to be rehabilitated from, so all attempts to make that work are useless.
We had one poor sot who just wanted out of the Army. Any AWOL over 30 days was, by definition, desertion. We got him three times before I left that facility, after court martial for him, for desertion, because he just wanted out. At least most of the military will process a misfit out pretty quickly now. We did have one at each of the two institutions I worked at who came in admitting their wrong, and desire to get back into the Army as a productive soldier. I think both made it.
We always listened to the parents, but I always believed that if by the time the person had been a puke for 18 years (that old to get in the military), the usually six to twelve months we had them wasn't going to change them. And if the parent had spent any quality time making them do right, we wouldn't be wondering how to do so. Of course, we did make them adhear to certain disciplinary standards. Violations were subject to in-house sanctions, or if serious enough, to another court-martial.
So to those of you who favor rehabilitation, trust me, I am all for it. I just have yet to see anything that works unless the convict buys into it. Normally they don't. They lived a certain life style for a long time before being incarcerated. They don't want to change, except to get better at crime and earn more money. Think about it, how long do you suppose it would take me to get most of the members of MT to embrace wholeheartedly a life of crime as opposed to the moral life (at least I hope so) they are living now?
The thing that I think would work best is that it should be a sufficiently unhappy place, that people would think twice about doing things that will get them sent there, and for long times. There should be no such thing as lack of TV being cruel and unusual punishment. Nothing on their arrival should be a given, everything must be earned; from getting books, to TV, and time in the yard with other than those others who haven't yet earned priviliges. To me that would be the best way to rehabilitate; no free lunch, everything must be earned.
That is the way it is for us, it should be no less for them, and hopefully they will embrace that life style. If they don't, life in prison will be less fun, and they will return for a new chance at change sooner than later.
Yeah, it must be nice (not really) to be a dirtbag criminal, possibly have no job, and still make 11k. And if you have no place to live, all they have to do is do something to warrant getting locked up for a while, and we all know what they get...3 squares, and a cot. 
