"This is a very prideful project for us," Acting Warden Francis Sequeira told the small gathering. "A lot of our inmates are part Hawaiian or Hawaiian at heart. The lo'i is a connection for us."

The project is being funded by an award from the Garden Clubs of America. Members of the Garden Club of Honolulu wrote up a detailed proposal for the project last year, which they submitted to their national organization. The Garden Clubs of America has given awards to community gardens and public parks, but never a prison project such as this. When the Honolulu members got word that they snagged the big national prize, an e-mail went out that proclaimed: "The little old ladies in tennies and sun visors prevailed!"

Those ladies have volunteered to teach classes in flower arranging and native plants to the inmates, but they won't be working in the lo'i. That hard, muddy work will fall on the shoulders and backs of the inmates.

"No backhoe," Winston Kong said. "We're talking back 'o'o." (An 'o'o is a digging stick.)

Kong is a teacher and counselor at Windward Community College. He's also an adviser to the college's Hawaiian Club and half-jokingly describes himself as "Johnny Lo'i Seed."

"We will open more lo'i as long as there is land to be had," Kong said.

In the past, Kong has had some inmates come to visit the lo'i he put in at the college. He was enthusiastic about putting in a lo'i right on the prison grounds. Kong will direct the project, overseeing the building, planting and eventual harvesting.

"Change has to come one fundamental piece at a time, and you cannot get more fundamental than working the land with your hands," Kong said. "So by building this, the women will also be building themselves."

Kong's vision is to put in complementary crops along the edges of the lo'i : banana, kukui, even some koa and 'iliahi.

The kalo will go to feed the inmates and will be shared with kupuna in Waimanalo.

"Kupuna should never have to buy their poi."

Instead of building the lo'i on higher ground, Kong chose a low spot.

"We wanted a harder spot. We wanted to challenge ourselves," he said. "This is our attempt at prison reform from the inside out. When the change is internal, it's a change that lasts longer."

Serena Ahuna summed up her hopes for the lo'i in one word. She looked toward the land where she will move rocks, dig holes, and pull weeds in the sun and rain while the roots grow strong beneath the surface.

"Prosperity," she said.