Only 3% of these ex-prisoners re-offend. The nation's rate is 66%.

A converted machine shop in southeastern San Diego is training men who spent decades in prison to become certified machinists, often just weeks after release. Rise Up Industries, a nonprofit running the paid apprenticeship for more than a decade, pairs the trade instruction with therapy and case management. The shop fills real contracts for aerospace parts, medical devices and, among other things, fishing lures. Only 3% of graduates re-offend, the group says, against a national rate near 66% over three years. Komisi Savaiinaea served more than two decades before joining. He had no machining experience and little patience for technology, and the whole thing scared him. Then he watched other former prisoners run the machines. "If these gentlemen on the floor can get it, you know, I believe in myself," he said. He is now a supervisor, and a cancer survivor, and married more than 30 years. He teaches the new arrivals trigonometry.