LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A new program will help provide job training to parolees and minimum-security inmates to help reduce the chances of them returning to prison.

The state recently awarded $6.2 million in grants to eight organizations across Nebraska to provide training to nearly 1,500 felons.

The Center for People in Need in Lincoln plans to put them to work running forklifts in the warehouse and in the kitchen of a food service program.

About 27 percent of the Nebraska prisoners released in 2011 had returned to prison by June 30, 2014. Corrections Department spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith says she hopes the program shrinks that number.