Here’s the deal. We used to try to rehabilitate criminals. Now we don’t. We lock them up and throw away the key. I personally believe in teaching criminals some kind of skill so they can get employed when they get out. And I personally believe in shortening sentences so we don’t have to pay to house, feed and medicate them for decades. If they are criminally insane, then they never get out. But otherwise, get them off drugs—my information is that inmates still have access to drugs in prison—so clean up the prison system from drugs, teach them a marketable skill, get them their GEDs and give them a second chance.
You’re right; rehabilitation isn’t even the goal anymore. In fact, they’ve become schools for career criminals. The prison system (like public education) has simply become a huge industry unto itself, and actually fixing things would cost too many people their livelihoods.
If we fixed our schools and actually fought a “war on drugs”, our prison system would be a fraction of its size.