SOLEDAD, Calif. — More than most artists, the men who gather twice a week for mural class in the B Facility are accustomed to darkness.

But the scene they are creating — a tropical rain forest — requires color and light, elements in short supply at Salinas Valley State Prison.

“I don’t have much of a legacy,” Jeffrey Sutton, who is serving 41 years for armed robbery, said of his life. “This is something positive that helps me focus on getting out,” he added, daubing flecks of green onto the leaves of a jungle vine.