My, my. You are just plain wrong.  It has been consistently demonstrated (by, you know, science in the form of statistics) that contact with family (whether the one you're born into or one you make) is in fact central to rehabilitation and successful reintegration into society.  Access to family and loved ones is a key rehabilitative concept and in Alaska, it's a right that guaranteed by our state constitution.  Those who don't have family or loved ones do significantly worse than those who do.   
All prisons are cruel, harsh places. The punishment part of being sent to prison is that ones freedoms and many rights are taken away.  However, the way our prisons operate, far more than freedom and rights are lost.  Lives are lost, minds are lost, identities are lost, humanity is lost; a great many of the things that make us human are lost or deliberately taken via the institutionalization process.  
When we support these things we lose a part of ourselves in the process.