These women are raising endangered butterfly larvae from prison: ‘They reconnect with their own brilliance’

‘Many of the women speak of their pride working on a project that feels like it is making a positive contribution to the world.’ Photograph: Washington State Department of Corrections

Trista Egli was standing in a greenhouse, tearing up strips of plantain and preparing to feed them to butterfly larvae.

Of the many things the team here has tried to tempt larvae of the Taylor’s checkerspot – a native of the Pacific north-west – with, it is the invasive English plantain they seem to love the most.