Roughly 40 percent of the inmates in the Casper Re-Entry Center also have had at least one parent in the facility, said Deputy Director Jim Piro.

The Re-Entry Center has a successful treatment program, said Piro, but the Wyoming State Penitentiary still sees 30 to 40 percent of paroled inmates return within three years.

Department of corrections director Bob Lampert said that's still better than a 50 percent national recidivism rate.

A recent study by the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan public policy think tank, reports that for the first time, more than one of every 100 adults in the U.S. is in jail or prison.

The answer to an increasing incarcerated population is complicated, said Dr. Stuart Twemlow, medical director of the Menninger Hope Program, an international psychiatric center.

The problem and the solution begins with the wealth disparity in the country. As the wealthy become wealthier and the poor, poorer, violence increases, he said.

The idea of community connectedness, Twemlow said, where groups share similarities with one another, is another answer.

The more inward communities become, the less likely they are to recognize the similarities in other communities. If one group views itself as fundamentally different from another, it is more likely to commit crimes against the other.

Twemlow said the U.S. is arguably one of the most sophisticated countries in the world, but it carries the violence rate of a developing nation.

Beginning with children may also be a solution, he said. Few people are predisposed to violence, and if kids are taught in the schools that being helpful is higher on the social scale than being a bully, the violence paradigm could change.

District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl agrees that keeping people out of prisons in part begins with children.

Once convicted felons come before him in his court, his tools are limited.

"By the time they get to our level, it's more an issue of protecting society," he said.

Piro said the Re-Entry Center has a number of programs targeting youth. One sends former penitentiary inmates into schools to tell kids what it's like to be incarcerated.

"Some kids think it's cool to be in prison." Piro said they often don't think it's cool after the former prisoners share their stories.

It's also never too late to reform, he said.

Carroll Manning, 30, a convicted felon who's spent roughly two-thirds of his life in the state system, was sentenced recently to 12 1/2 to 16 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary after he pleaded guilty to 77 felonies.

In an interview at the Natrona County Detention Center, Manning said he may be beyond help. When he gets out in his 40s, he said with resignation that he will inevitably go back to the walls and barbed wire he knows.

"Some people believe people become institutionalized, and I think that can be changed," Piro said. "We talk about freedom and a lot of them don't think they are capable of getting better, their self esteem is shot. We make them believe they can do this, that it's a better life to be at home with their kids."

Piro said he's seen success with the Re-Entry Center's treatment programs, but Twemlow said society may need more than rehabilitation facilities.

People need to serve those around them, he said, improving not only their communities but also communities with different social, economic or racial backgrounds.

Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@trib.com