1) Love is essential in the reformation process. Many of the criminals ended up where they are due to a failed home experience growing up. Among other things, they weren't loved enough. It is said a person doesn't care how much you know unless he knows how much you care. So, the inmate doesn't care what reforms you would have him pursue until he knows how much you care. Love is the greatest motivator. If you show you love them, they often respond with gratitude to the point they want to do whatever you would have them do. Also, consider God, since your treatise deals with that. God is a God of love; he loves all his children. He loves them all. He leaves the 99 to seek the 1 in a 100. In Isaiah, it says (many times) something like, "For all this, his hand is stretched out still."
2) Many criminals were not taught right and wrong as they were growing up. So, when we have them in our prisons, it is an opportunity to go back and teach them as if they each were still a child. Correct them when they do not make wise choices.
3) Visiting privileges are often restricted. This is good when they are speaking through the glass window with family members or friends who are not desirable. So, change the setting. Have the family members join the inmate in a conferance room for an activity -- playing Monopoly, or whatever. As they interact, correct them when they mistreat each other. Teach them to love each other. Love at home? Teach them how it's done. Once they are released from prison, you do not want them to fall back into toxic treatment of their spouses and children. Teach them how it should be done and let them practice loving each other in the activities. Practice makes perfect.
4) We all have role models. Most always, I would guess, the criminal has not had a good role model. Try to change that. Bring in good role models from the neighborhoods in which they live, volunteers who want to help the inmate since they are neighbors. Have the volunteer and inmate sit and talk to each other, sharing feelings and beliefs of what is wrong and right. And, when the inmate is released and returns to his neighborhood, encourage the volunteer to pursue the friendship between them at that time. Encourage them to have barbecues with each others families or whatever.
5) Prepare them to be employable when they return to society. Teach them job skills. On this, I believe most of our prisons succeed. I wonder, though, if enough help is provided them in actually gaining employment. This is important; much of our criminal activity occurs because the criminal has bills to pay. If he cannot find a way to pay those bills legitimately, he resorts to stealing, selling drugs, or whatever. Lift them from that cycle. There is no member of society more in need of job-placement than the ex-con.
6) Help them find a hobby, a passion. A job is a job, often, and it becomes important to foster a love of a hobby, whether it is chess, playing football, or whatever. I think I would discourage them from making guns that hobby. Wrong choice.
7) Encourage them to attend church when they are released. There, on a weekly basis, the principles of right and wrong will be reiterated.
8) In reforming them, turn to the principles of repentance taught in our churches. Help them recognize their wrong. Help them feel a remorse for what they did. Help them see the harm they inflicted on their victim. Direct them to confess their wrongdoing. Teach them that they should never go back to what they did.
9) Don't release them until they are ready. While they might have five-year (or however long) sentences, do not release them at that time unless they have repented and prepared for life outside the prison. Have them "graduate," if you will.
10) Encourage homecomings for them. When they are released, have the neighors thow a party celebrating their release, and welcoming them with loving arms back into the neighborhood. I think this would kind of be following the pattern set forth in the Parable of the Lost Son. The father had a big party for the returning son.
11) Throw away the orange uniforms. They only serve as reminders to the prisoner that he has fallen short of society's standards. I have heard of a study showing prisoners receive better sentencing when their appearance is good. That shouldn't be. They should be sentenced according to their crimes, not according to their looks. But, it does lead me to consider how the prisoner, himself, might judge his own self by his looks. If the dress of a person, and the hygiene, and the haircut and the appearance of a person make a difference in self esteem. And perhaps the head shaves should be done away with. The idea should not be to humiliate, even in these slight ways. No, the idea should be to give the person self-respect, selve-value. Built that self-worth; do not tear it down. A person becomes that which you convince them they are. Help them realize they have great value.
12) Give the prisoner positive reinforcement. Anytime he does something good, the prison guards should be recognizing it. This, too, will prompt the prisoner to see him or herself as someone of value and worth.
