While researching prisons in Wyoming for my WIP, IT’S
ONLY MAKE BELIEVE, I found something fascinating and actually kind of
wonderful. I’ll admit I am not captivated by prisons, or at least not until I
found out about The Wyoming Honor Farm.
Monument At The Riverton Honor Farm
But first, here’s a little history. The Wyoming Honor
Farm opened in 1931, attained by the 21st Legislature, and was originally known
as the “State Penitentiary Farm” with a budget for the first year of $50,000.
It was part of the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, and was run by Farm
Manager Andrew Brenston, the acting onsite supervisor, with 1 other supervisor
and 2 correctional officers. The staffing level didn’t change for 40
years. According to the 1958 Annual Report, “It was proposed that the
overall farm program be continued and improved for … hope that a greater number
of those released would profit by participating in this work to the extent that
they may be successful in finding and maintaining their place in society and
become useful citizens once again.”
The Wyoming Honor Farm started with 880 acres a mile
north of Riverton, Wyoming. After 11 acres were sold later to the State Highway
Department, 869 acres remained. Farm operations decreased to 640 acres in 2016.
Activities in the early years included beef, swine, and poultry operations,
crops, dairy production, and a butcher shop. 2300 acres of State and leased
land behind the Wyoming Life Resource Center in Lander were added in the late
1970s for grazing for the beef program. Current annual farm operations include
an average of 700 cattle, spring calving, 170 wild horses, and over 500 acres
of alfalfa, corn, oats and other crops.
In 1985, “A” Dorm was built, housing 40 inmates, at a
cost of $425,000. Three other dorms were built in the following years, along
with new food service facilities, vocational education shop and a multipurpose
administration building. Now here is the part I really love. In 1988, The
Wyoming Honor Farm partnered with the Bureau of Land Management to begin
training wild horses. 3500 wild horses have been adopted from the Honor
Farm since 1988, and over 950 inmates have worked in the program, with an
average of 175 horses on-site each day. The co-operative agreement between the
Wyoming Honor Farm and the Bureau of Land Management is one of the longest
running Prison partnerships in the United States.
In the 85 years since its beginning, the Wyoming Honor
Farm facility has expanded to fill an important position in the Fremont County
community, and overall Wyoming Department of Corrections vision, providing
offenders opportunities to become law-abiding citizens, and successfully return
to society as neighbors. Through upgrades and physical expansions, the
Honor Farm has grown into a prison containing four dorms, having a facility
capacity that has grown from 30 inmates in the earliest years, to 279 inmates
in 2014. The facilities now include a warehouse, as well as programming,
vocational, recreational, and educational space, to meet the goal of reducing
recidivism through cognitive and behavioral intervention.
The Inmates packing sand during a flood
The Wyoming Honor Farm's Wild Horse Program, which began
in early 1988, plays an important role in inmate rehabilitation because it
provides an opportunity for inmates to learn how to respect animals and people
through day-to-day challenges. Respect is a life skill that many inmates need
help developing while incarcerated. Inmates in the Wild Horse Program work
together as a team and, through this team, they learn to respect the opinions
and goals of others. Inmates working with horses learn that through respect and
patience even a wild animal will respond in a positive manner.
The Wyoming Honor Farm's Wild Horse Program has adopted a
training program which staff members feel is both beneficial to the horses here
and to the inmate trainers who work with the wild horses. The horses progress
from round pen work, to halter work, then into the saddling and rider
acceptance process. This ensures that the horses are not saddled or ridden
before the necessary ground work has been completed. Clinton Anderson's
training series is used as our main horse training system. Also included
in the program are techniques similar to those used by Buck
Breneman, Monty Roberts, Ray Hunt, Bryan Newbert and John Lyons which have
proven to be very successful.
When an Honor Farm inmate is assigned a job in the Wild
Horse Program he begins work on the feed crew. His job is to feed the animals.
During the day he will spend much of his time helping others work with the
horses.
This gives the inmate an opportunity to observe training
techniques as well as become familiar with the animals. When the
supervisor feels that the inmate is ready to progress to handling and gentling
he will talk to the inmate and start the training process.
Inmates With Wild Horses
The horses start getting desensitized from the
beginning through the feeding and pen cleaning process. They also are
moved from pen to pen, or worked in the large arena until they can handle some
pressure. This is done either by horseback or from the ground. The horses will
also get exposed to contact through the chute when being doctored,
vaccinated, or identification tags being checked. The horses then are
sorted into pens according to age, sex, or training progression. Once it
is determined the horse is ready to handle it, they will then start getting
sorted out individually during the day, and go through lots of round pen work
before being progressed into the halter starting process.
Once a horse has moved on into the halter stage, it is
progressed and advanced to more refined halter training. Attention is
concentrated on getting the horse’s feet handled and the horse willingly going
into the horse trailer. It will then be progressed to saddle acceptance,
and slowly with baby steps, be transitioned into rider acceptance. The
main focus for the horses is having a solid foundation created by lots of
groundwork.
The Honor Farm has 2 adoptions on site each year, (one
in the spring, and one in the fall), and a few other satellite adoptions around
the state in coordination with other BLM events. Horses are adopted using
a competitive bid process, where the highest bidder gets the horse. Bidding
starts at $125.00 per horse. The horses are still property of the BLM for one
year. After the year is up, the adopter gets a vet or brand inspector to
sign an application to verify the animal is healthy, and then the adopter gets
clear title for the horse.
The inmates in this program have to learn to communicate
and cooperate with each other to make everything work. Just like the
horses, inmates have to establish relationships, and maintain them with
positive or negative communication. The main focus is more on the positive
side and stresses that this is not just horse training, it’s life. If the
inmates can apply the lessons learned by working with the horses and each
other, they have a much better chance of becoming productive citizens when they
get out. A strong, positive, work ethic is something the Wyoming Honor
Farm really tries to instill in the inmates.
A strong belief is that the horses will not lie to you or
for you. So it stands to reason, the horse holds the inmate accountable. If
one does not gain the trust of the horse, they will not progress. If one
try’s to lie, cheat, or sneak with the horse, it will not tolerate it, and the
truth will come out. Inmates also get to help take care of something that
responds back to them. If you treat the horse and coworkers with dignity
and respect, the rewards can be life changing.
It’s easy to see it as a win-win situation. In cooperation
with the BLM which helps remove horses from the range, the public gets to have
access to horses that have been gentled in the training program. The lives of
the horses are saved and the lives of the inmates are changed forever through
this innovative and wonderful program.
Riverton Honor Farm And Rescue Horses
Naturally, I have to use this exciting research in my
1958 era WIP about Kit Wilding and June Wingate.
IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE (my WIP)
June
believed Kit loved her…until she married him
Blurb:
June Wingate has just married the man of her dreams only
to overhear a conversation at her reception regarding the truth about why he
married her. Her heart and trust are broken.
The newly elected mayor of Hazard, Kit Wilding, needs a
wife because the town demands that their mayor be a married man. He trusts
June, but now that they’re married, his wife seems distant and secretive. Kit is not the kind of man to give up easily.
(Unedited Opening Lines):
A loud slap echoed through the mayor’s house. June’s hand
stung as she placed it back in the pocket of her dressing gown, part of her
vast trousseau paid for by her parents.
Kit stepped back and rubbed his reddened cheek with his
left hand. June couldn’t help but notice the flash of his golden wedding band
in the light of the dressing room. Her heart clenched at the sight of it.
They’d been married only a few hours and now this…
“What the hell was that for, June? Did I do something
wrong by trying to kiss my wife?”
“You bet you did. I thought you loved me and now…” She
wasn’t quite sure how to say it to him now that she knew the truth. Honestly,
she could barely believe what she had overheard at their wedding reception. How
could she explain to him what she heard and express the doubts she had about
his love because of it? Well, best to find a way because it seemed quite
evident to her that he wasn’t about to leave her be until she did.
“You’d best tell me what this is all about, June, or I’m
going to think you married me just to spite your parents and now you have
second thoughts.”
“Oh, I have second thoughts all right, Kit Wilding, but
it has nothing to do with my parents. It seems you married me just so you would
have my family’s statue in the town to help you get elected mayor. I never
would have thought you could do such an underhanded thing, Kit, not in a
million years.”
“And you came by this amazing and supposed truth in what
way?” Kit turned to walk back into the bedroom, and then he sat on the bed and
faced June, his face a stoic mask.
