DALLAS - Megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes says it's cheaper to rehabilitate criminals than to incarcerate them, and wants to see a shift in where state and national resources are allocated.

"I'd like to see us stop the propensity that we have today to make a big business out of incarceration," Jakes said Sunday. "I'm trying to show the benefits of rehabilitation."

He spoke moments after 150 former inmates graduated from a program designed to increase their odds of succeeding after prison. They commenced to thunderous applause at Jakes' packed 9,000-seat Dallas church, The Potter's House.

Nearly 1,000 people have completed the 12-month Texas Offenders Re-entry Initiative, or TORI program, since its founding in 2005.