Early efforts to provide correctional treatment attempted to influence offenders through religious instruction and reform. After the Civil War, these efforts evolved from teaching inmates to read the Bible to mass liberal arts and vocational education programs. Starting in the 1950's, the medical model was implemented as the treatment approach of choice. In this model, criminality was treated in the same manner as a physical disease. The behavioral science model later emerged, embracing some elements of the medical model but incorporating scientific methods applied to human behavior. Therapeutic communities in and out of prison enjoyed some popularity in the 1970's, and the just deserts approach also emerged in this decade. Regardless of the correctional approach, the quality and credibility of relationships between offenders and correctional treatment staff and significant others have a significant influence. In the context of relationships, important considerations are discipline, obedience, and behavioral change. An existential model for change is offered as a catalyst to explore the positive potential of the human spirit in correctional relationships. 1 figure