Marvin High is ready for a fresh start. In the past five months, he's gotten a job at Peckham Industries, found an apartment, gotten a car, and started his life anew.

"I'm just taking one day at a time," High said. "I'm doing what I have to do to put myself back in the playing field with everyone else in society."

But the journey back has not been easy. High spent the past 16 years in prison for armed robbery and when he got out, he said he could have easily given in to temptation, if not for a special program.

"The opportunity is there through this program and I feel while the opportunity is there for people coming off parole, they will always have a chance to make it, which is really what we need," he said.

It's called the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative or the MPRI.

Russ Marlan of the Michigan Department of Corrections said the old way of doing things -- releasing prisoners to their own accord -- just wasn't working.

"There are a number of areas that have traditionally proved to be difficult for them," Marlan said, "such as identification, work, substance abuse, housing."

Then, he said one in two would return to prison within four years.

With MPRI, a transition team from the parolee's own community meets with the prisoner before they're released.

"Local folks get together and go into a prison before they get out," Marlan said. "Total strangers to the prisoner go into the prison and ask them 'how do you plan to live, where do you plan to work?'"

The he said the team sticks with the them after release too keep tabs, and offer guidance.

"We took a look at why people fail and put resources and changes to the system to make sure when they are released, now they will have a better opportunity to succeed," he said.

So far 21,000 people have gone through MPRI, a program that's working Marlan said, and it is contributing to lowering the prison population.

According to the department:

In August of this year, the prison population was at 46,701 -- the smallest since 2001.

That's down 5,000 people since the beginning of 2007.

The same department statistics suggest crime is down too.

Prison intake has decreased 8 percent during first seven months of this year.

"It's working because our recidivism rate is down, crime is down, our prison population is down," Marlan said. "When you look at those factors, it is working."

Local law enforcement and county prosecutors we talked to, say they support the concept of MPRI, but wouldn't call it a rousing success just yet, noting people may not be returning to prison at the rate they once were, but that doesn't mean they aren't committing new crimes.

"My concerns are with the way the department is spinning the program and the results on the street don't match," Jeffrey Sauter said.

Eaton County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sauter said there are plenty of examples of recent parolees breaking the law and not going back to prison.

"A woman with 14 prior felony convictions, on parole from prison, committed new credit card fraud in Eaton County and then Ingham County," Sauter said. "Our judge decided to keep her locally on probation and a jail sentence. It was the same in Ingham County. That's parole success to the department."

As we first reported this past June, the Oakland County Prosecutor sued the Department of Corrections to get the list of who's up for parole and why because she felt dangerous criminals were slipping through the cracks.

In Eaton County, Sauter's office has definitely disagreed with the parole board on more than one occasion.

"One was a sex offender who wrote a letter to another prisoner in prison that said if I'd had more time, I would have done more," Sauter said. "I don't think he's ready for release."

Marlan admits the program isn't perfect.

"Our detractors will point to specific cases and say 'well this person committed another felony,' he said. "We don't profess to have created a system that will reform every single person."

But Marlan said every person paroled has served their minimum sentence, all the department has done is tried to create a better process for releasing them, which in turn, makes the community safer.

"There are hundreds of people out there as law-abiding, productive citizens,because this program is in effect," he said.

High said he's grateful to the program for bringing him this far.

"I know that they're there if I need them, but basically right now I'm doing this on my own," High said.

Now he said it's up to him, to prove he deserved a second chance.

Currently the program is not mandatory, the parole board decides who goes through it and who doesn't. Eventually, Marlan said it will become a permanent program of the Department of Corrections.

The MPRI program was started by a $2 million dollar grant from a foundation in New York City. Ever since, Marlan said, the legislature has increased the funding for it. This year, they've allocated $56 million.

Marlan said other states have contacted the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections to discuss the MPRI program.