On a typical Tuesday afternoon at the Dick Conner Correctional Center, Joshua Codynah works with metals at a factory on site. The Hominy facility is part of the Oklahoma Correctional Industries’ program, where incarcerated people manufacture goods like license plates and furniture.
But last week, Codynah instead had his hands in the dirt, helping plant dozens of native seedlings in a small grassy plot near the cafeteria.
The garden will be one of four at prisons across Oklahoma, where unused land is being converted into pollinator habitats. Members of the Oklahoma Monarch Society partnered with the Department of Corrections to expand their conservation efforts and help struggling species in a new way.
For Codynah, the program is a chance to continue learning. That’s a goal he set for himself to achieve during the remainder of his life sentence.
“When you're locked up in a cell, most of the time of the day, getting to touch a piece of dirt is a piece of freedom,” he said.
Codynah was born in Carnegie and is a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. He didn’t grow up gardening, but he misses spending time outdoors and observing plants and insects.
“You kind of miss the little things,” Codynah said. “I'm just glad I could be a part of something that big of a magnitude and something bigger than myself.”
Pollinating animals — from birds to butterflies — are experiencing population declines because of habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. As roadways or manicured lawns replace native vegetation, pollinators lose the food and nesting sites necessary for survival. Remaining patches of undeveloped land are more spread out, making it difficult for pollinators to find a spot to refuel while they migrate.
Jamie Mansell, who volunteers with the Oklahoma Monarch Society, said the nonprofit wants to help re-carve a path for the pollinators, so they can be around for generations to come.
“Migrating species were used to having a corridor that they could travel through,” she said. “We can kind of piecemeal that corridor back together by having these smaller, little efforts along the way.”
The program was created about 10 years ago and receives funding from grants and the sale of Oklahoma monarch license plates, which are manufactured at the Dick Conner facility.
Volunteers carted in seedlings, nutrient-packed soil and books. A piece of graph paper helped them chart where to put native species like milkweed, asters, black-eyed susans and blue mist flowers. Oklahoma is a critical stopover for pollinators like monarch butterflies, which are currently being considered for protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Reports say their numbers are slowly rising, partly due to conservation efforts like habitat restoration.
During the gardening day, Codynah was one of the first people to join in. By the afternoon, at least a dozen men were lending a hand in the budding garden. Others still gathered near the edges of the fence to watch or leaf through some of the native plant books.
Walt Scott, known as the head gardener around the facility, had already been planting flowers for about seven years. He didn’t need to use one of the shovels brought out to till the earth. Instead, he used his preferred tool made from a PVC pipe, which he had carefully rounded into a smooth digging tool.
“I can get the same thing done with this,” Scott said.
That way, he doesn’t have to wait for a prison official to fetch supplies when he wants to tend to the plants. During his time at Dick Conner, Scott has solidified his role in the yard, with his work presented in the flowers already lining the facility’s perimeter.
“I just like them,” Scott said of the flowers. “We like to watch the hummingbirds and the butterflies come in.”
Scott said he saw a couple of black-and-white-striped monarch caterpillars earlier this year, but he hopes the new garden will bring in more.
Larissa Balzer is the president of the Monarch Society’s board of directors. She says planting at the Dick Conner facility is especially meaningful because it's where the organization’s monarch license plates are manufactured. The group gets $20 from each plate purchased and renewal fees every year thereafter.
“Because of their labor, our organization can exist,” Balzar said. “We need to bring that right all the way back around so they get to experience the beauty of the plants and the native habitat, and to see the butterflies and let the magic of transformation and change and resilience just be a part of their time here.”
The license plate generates approximately $20,000 per month, according to the Monarch Society, which it uses to support pollinator habitat and outreach efforts statewide.
The nonprofit is also arranging for participating facilities in Stringtown, Hinton and Taft to get monarch murals. Rick Sinnett, the same local artist who designed the monarch license plate, designed the paintings.
For many of the men, planting gives them a chance to slow down and think more clearly. David Aradoz said the opportunity to work outdoors provides solace away from the noise indoors.
“This place is a mess here, you got people in here from ‘A to Z,’” Aradoz said. “Who knows what they did, but who cares? As long as they're being productive, you know? That's what it is.”
“I've seen people turn their whole life around just from that little garden we got in there.”
Aradoz said he’s set to be released in a few months and has plans to continue gardening on the other side of the gates. Pollinating species like the monarch need help to survive, he said.
“It is just a pretty butterfly that needs a chance,” Aradoz said. “We get second chances. Why can't they?”
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