>'What is being done to help prisoners rehabilitate and break out of this loop?'
Not much that I'm aware of. Being "tough on crime" is still pretty popular depending on political affiliation, Joe "Concentration Camp" Arpaio is still a sheriff and GEO is up 15% YTD [1].
However, there's been a fair amount of recent coverage around stepping back from some of the policies that got us here [2] so there's reason to be hopeful.
1: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AGEO&ei=5BgaVMjANtOQ8...
2: http://www.vox.com/2014/9/12/6139819/bill-clinton-violent-cr...