I appreciate your explanation.  And I acknowledge your far greater direct experience of offenders on a day-to-day basis.  But the difference between (your perception of) the rehabilitation potential of murderers and (your perception of) the rehabilitation potential of other offenders is a little open-ended, I think.  Quite possibly, the difference is more a function of the length of sentence than of the crime itself. Certainly there are examples of murderers who eventually develop quite positive records, even if they know they will never be released.  Most of them say that they had to go through several years of denial and anger before they could find a positive attitude.  With shorter sentences, other offenders have more immediate incentive to cooperate, or at least appear to.

But neither of us is accounting for the about two-thirds recidivism rate of Alaska felons.