A machine shop in San Diego that trains people coming out of prison says just 3% of its graduates go on to reoffend – against a national rate of about 66% within three years.
Rise Up Industries runs paid apprenticeships in CNC machining for formerly incarcerated people, and pairs the shop-floor training with therapy, case management and education.
The work coming off its machines is real commercial output, including parts for aerospace and medical devices, automotive components, camera and faucet hardware, BMX parts and fishing lures.
Komisi Savaiinaea had served more than 20 years in prison when he first walked in.
“I was very intimidated and skeptical about the whole thing,” he told media.
What changed his mind was a tour of the floor, where he learned that the men already running the machines had arrived with no machining experience either. He finished the apprenticeship, was promoted to supervisor and now mentors the people coming in behind him.
One of them is Anthony Walkens, who was released on parole in 2025 after 27 years in prison.
“When I first came through the door, I was overwhelmed, I thought I had bit off more than I could chew. But the welcome I got here from people like Komisi, it reassured me that I would be able to do this,” Anthony said.
Executive director Jonathan Yackley says the program learned early that a skill on its own does not keep people out of prison.
“Someone can leave incarceration with a certificate and still face the same isolation, trauma, instability and lack of opportunity that contributed to incarceration in the first place,” Yackley said.
That is why the job comes wrapped in behavioral health care, case management and education, and why the shop puts so much weight on people knowing they belong there.
More than a decade after it opened, Rise Up is still taking on new apprentices, and Komisi is now one of the people welcoming them in.
