HOMINY, Okla. (AP) — Darrell Elliott carried a crate of lavender flowers out of the greenhouse into the direct sunlight, taking advantage of a break from a recent string of spring storms that left northeast Oklahoma soggy and humid.

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with dirt smudges on the legs, Elliott gently stroked the petals of one of the flowers, ignoring the razor-wire fence that surrounds the Dick Conner Correctional Center.

"It makes you feel like you're not in prison," Elliott, who has five years left on an 11-year sentence for manslaughter, told The Oklahoman. "This also gives me ho...