Corrections Secretary Mike Crews says fewer Florida prison inmates are re-offending after their release.

The percentage of inmates who commit another crime within three years of release has dropped to 27.6% for those released since 2008. It used to be 33.3%.

Crews on Monday credited a change in his agency's culture.

"Historically in our agency, it has been about locking them up, turning them out and hoping for the best when they get out", Crews said. "I think we've all seen that just does not work when you look at the exploding rates that we saw for a number of years."

Now prisons focus more on helping inmates overcome the conditions that helped land them behind bars…substance abuse, mental illness and illiteracy.

Crews says the change has resulted in less crime and more savings for the state prison system.