Introduction: The Sound of a New Beginning
In a converted industrial machine shop in southeastern San Diego, the ambient noise is a familiar symphony of modern manufacturing: the steady hum of computer numerical control (CNC) mills, the sharp hiss of compressed air, and the rhythmic clatter of metal cutting metal. But look closer at the men operating these high-precision machines, and you will find a narrative far removed from a standard commercial workshop.
Weeks or months removed from decades behind bars, these individuals are not merely earning a paycheck; they are executing a profound life transition. They are rewriting their identities.
Enter Rise Up Industries (RUI), an inspirational San Diego-based nonprofit that has spent over a decade quietly revolutionizing prisoner re-entry. By transforming felony records into nationally recognized machinist certifications, RUI offers a holistic, paid apprenticeship program complete with embedded mental health therapy, academic tutoring, and rigorous case management.
While the apparatus of the program is sophisticated, its output is profoundly real. The workshop fills high-demand contracts for aerospace components, medical device parts, automotive hardware, camera assemblies, faucet components, bicycle frames, and even precision fishing lures. In a nation grappling with a bloated correctional system and punishing societal stigma against the formerly incarcerated, Rise Up Industries offers a blueprint for what true rehabilitation can look like when paired with economic dignity.
Main Facts: The Anatomy of Rise Up Industries
To understand the scale of the crisis RUI addresses, one must examine the baseline reality of the American justice system. The United States notoriously tops the developed world in per-capita incarceration rates. Yet, once individuals complete their sentences, they face an unforgiving economic landscape where a felony conviction acts as a nearly insurmountable barrier to gainful, long-term employment. Without stability, the revolving door of recidivism swings wide open.
National statistics paint a grim picture: according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, roughly 66% of released prisoners are re-arrested within a three-year horizon. Rise Up Industries operates in stark, brilliant defiance of these numbers. Internal tracking from the organization reveals that only 3% of program graduates re-offend—a testament to the efficacy of combining intensive vocational training with robust social support systems.
Key Pillars of the RUI Model:
- Paid Apprenticeship: Participants earn a livable wage while learning, mitigating the immediate financial desperation that often triggers re-offending.
- Advanced Technical Training: Focused heavily on CNC machining to meet San Diego’s booming advanced manufacturing sector demands.
- Behavioral Health Integration: Comprehensive therapy, clinical support, and trauma-informed care.
- Peer-Led Mentorship: Leadership and supervision provided by graduates who share identical lived experiences.
Chronology: Journeys of Transformation
The true measure of any social enterprise is found in the individual transformations of its participants. For men who have spent the vast majority of their adult lives inside the correctional system, stepping into a high-tech manufacturing floor can feel like landing on another planet.
Komisi Savaiinaea: From Fear to Foreperson
Komisi Savaiinaea served more than two decades in prison. When he was first released and introduced to Rise Up Industries, the intimidation was palpable.
"I was very intimidated and skeptical about the whole thing," Savaiinaea admitted in an interview. "I’d never had any experience with machining, it had been many years since I went to school, I’m not too savvy with technology, so I was a bit fearful of the whole thing."
That fear dissolved when he toured the facility and spoke with active program members operating the machinery. "It really helped put it into perspective—they had no prior machining experience either," he recalled.
Guided by patient instructors and floor tutors who broke down complex principles like trigonometry into manageable crash courses, Savaiinaea realized that if his peers could master the craft, he could too. Looking back, he recognized the alternative: scraping by on temporary construction sites, living paycheck to paycheck with no long-term security.
Today, Savaiinaea’s journey has come full circle. Having graduated from the apprenticeship, he now serves as a supervisor in the machine shop. In this role, he acts as a consistent source of guidance for incoming participants, offering a gentle, empathetic ear that only someone with identical lived experience can provide. Furthermore, Savaiinaea has navigated personal hurdles, including beating cancer between 2023 and 2024, and utilizing RUI’s therapy resources to strengthen his marriage of more than 30 years.
"I’ve been with her through dysfunction, addiction, and it looks different coming home in a responsible state of mind in a pro-social setting," he reflects.
Anthony Walkens: Breaking Free After 47 Years
Most participants in the program come from gang-involved backgrounds, a reality shared by current apprentice Anthony Walkens. In 1998, Walkens was convicted of gang-related homicide charges and sentenced to 55 years to life. He ultimately served 47 years across various correctional institutions throughout California.
It was only during his final decade behind bars that a profound personal shift occurred, eventually making him eligible for parole in 2025. Stepping out into a world that had radically transformed over nearly half a century, Walkens experienced the exact same trepidation as Savaiinaea.
"When I first came through the door, I was overwhelmed, I thought I had bit off more than I could chew," Walkens said. "Pero the welcome I got here from people like Komisi, it reassured me that I would be able to do this. When Komisi first started, he had this same experience, and coming from the same scenario as I, it started being more comfortable."
Today, Walkens describes the RUI machine shop not as an intimidating industrial floor, but as a sanctuary. "It’s really a beautiful place," he notes, "kind of like a family setting."
Supporting Data and Regional Context
The success of Rise Up Industries is not an accident of geography, but a calculated alignment with regional economic realities. San Diego boasts a robust, thriving advanced manufacturing sector with a persistent shortage of skilled machinists. Recognizing this gap, RUI leadership strategically chose CNC machining as the anchor of its employment pipeline.
However, Executive Director Jonathan Yackley is quick to emphasize that machines and metal are only tools for a deeper mission.
"Over the years, we have learned that technical training alone is not enough," Yackley explains. "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."
This philosophy is backed by sociological and criminological data. The transition from a highly regimented, hyper-vigilant institutional environment back into civil society induces profound psychological shock. Without behavioral health intervention, even the most talented newly released artisan can stumble when confronted with housing instability, family reintegration, or the subtle triggers of complex trauma.
RUI’s integration of clinical therapy bridges this critical gap, ensuring that emotional stability underpins professional competence.
Official Responses and Expert Insights
The model pioneered by Rise Up Industries has drawn praise from community leaders, criminal justice reformers, and economic development experts alike.
In a formal statement regarding the program’s philosophy, Jonathan Yackley highlighted the symbiotic relationship between technical mastery and personal rehabilitation:
"Sustainable change happens when demanding career training is combined with behavioral health care, case management, education, and a community in which people know they belong. Komisi is a powerful example. The leadership skills he once used in prison now help him supervise a manufacturing team, encourage new participants, and serve his community."
The institutional endorsement of this approach underscores a growing national consensus: public safety is enhanced not through harsher, endless punitive measures, but through restorative pathways that restore human capital. When individuals are provided with the tools to become taxpayers, mentors, and contributing family members, the entire community benefits.
Implications: A Blueprint for National Reform
The implications of Rise Up Industries extend far beyond the borders of San Diego. As the United States continues to grapple with the economic and social costs of mass incarceration, successful localized models serve as beacons for national reform.
1. Economic Reintegration as Public Safety
Traditional re-entry programs often focus exclusively on job placement services—pushing former inmates into low-wage, high-turnover positions with limited upward mobility. RUI proves that providing access to high-skill, high-wage advanced manufacturing careers fundamentally alters the financial calculus of returning citizens. When a person can earn a stable, middle-class living wage, the economic incentive for criminal activity evaporates.
2. Redefining Leadership and Authority
By employing program graduates like Komisi Savaiinaea as supervisors and mentors, RUI leverages peer credibility. For men harboring deep-seated skepticism of authority figures and institutional systems, receiving guidance from someone who sat in the exact same cell block provides a unique psychological bridge. It dismantles shame and replaces it with mutual accountability.
3. The Holistic Standard
RUI demonstrates that vocational training and mental healthcare cannot be siloed. True rehabilitation requires a simultaneous attack on multiple fronts: professional certification, psychological healing, substance abuse recovery, and family counseling.
Conclusion: Reforming Society, One Machinist at a Time
In the quiet corners of southeastern San Diego, the sparks flying off a CNC lathe represent much more than precision metalworking. They represent second chances forged in steel.
Organizations like Rise Up Industries remind the public that human beings are not defined solely by their worst moments, but by their capacity for growth, redemption, and service. Through visionary leadership, comprehensive support, and an unwavering belief in human potential, RUI is quietly dismantling the stigma of incarceration—transforming men who once sat behind prison walls into the very architects of America’s manufacturing future.
