Only 17 percent of graduates of a Sacramento County program for parolees have returned to prison.  That's a far lower rate than the rest of the state. 

Wednesday, the Sacramento Community Based Coalition honored 350 parolees who went through its program and are now contributing members of society.  Angelica Perez is in the program, six months sober and studying landscaping.

PEREZ: "They give me life skills, you know, the GED program.  They also give us assistance in college enrollment, you know, vocational training."

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation funds the program.  Bill Lane runs it on behalf of the County Office of Education.  It costs about $2 million per year to run, but saves the state almost $4 million.

LANE:  "We've got about 300 clients in our program right now and there's about 5,000 men and women on parole in Sacramento County and we really should be expanding this."

The department of Corrections says the program works here because parolees are highly motivated, but there are no plans to expand it.