What if you decided that as part of reforming the prisoner, you need to teach him the right way to handle the situation that landed him in prison in the first place? I would guess, some counseling already does this.
But, I would guess we only touch the surface of what needs to be done.
If the criminal raped someone, teach them how to deal with their sexual urges. Teach them that they can be denied. I'm not talking just a lesson once or twice while the prisoner is there, but rather working with him throughout his time in prison.
If the criminal struck his wife with his fist, teach him ways of responding when different situations arise that might lead him to anger. Teach him to control his anger. And, again, I'm not talking teaching just a little, but rather I speak of a committed, maybe even daily effort to show the prisoner how he needs to change.
I guess we would call it, getting to the root of the problem. If we don't teach the prisoner to react differently next time, we probably should expect to get the same reaction when the next time does roll around.
Why we don't provide in-depth efforts to train the criminal this way is beyond me. Nothing taught, is nothing learned. He won't learn to do differently unless we spend a huge amount of time teaching him how to react better to the situation that landed him there.
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