They Need Life's Lessons, and Love

 The question comes across Facebook: Should prison be focused on punishment or rehabilitation?

It should be on reforming the prisoner. But, that is not to say punishment should be absent. The prison should be a place of training, a place of learning, a place where their families are brought in and they are taught how to treat them. You need to rebuild him or her (the prisoner), not just address the crime they committed, but who they are as a person. You pretty much need to take them as if they were children, and teach them everything from manners to how to fend for themselves financially without resorting to crime. And, the prisoner -- everyone of them -- needs to experience love. Those who work with them need to include those who are focused on loving them. Love changes more people than a set of ankle bracelets.

Also, there should be an element of graduation, not just time served. If the goal is to rehabilitate them, not just punish them, then release them when they show they are a changed person, not just when they have been punished. 

How can a person that has never been habilitated be rehabilitated? asks another person on the Facebook thread.

Good point. Many of them grew up without being raised. Nobody taught them what manners were, or what right and wrong is. Go in and teach them from the start, teaching them as if you were a parent and they were a child. Don't just address the crime they committed, cover everything that makes them a good person. They committed one crime, but their character has a number of things that need corrected. You can't remove one crime unless you correct the whole of the person. Many of them also grew up without experiencing much love. Love them, then. Teach them that they do have value. Don't treat them as trash, treat them as treasures. All that said, punishment is still in order. But, help them understand why they are being punished.