Convicted murderer Robert Knowles stands in the morning sunlight, composting food scraps from the chow hall and coffee grounds from the prison Headquarters.

“It’s nice to be out in the elements,” he says, as he stirs the dark, rich compost that will assist the soil at a small farm where he and other inmates of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center work.

Inmates of the facility, 25 miles from the Washington State Capital, raise bees, grow organic tomatoes and lettuce, and compost 100 percent of food waste.

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