Excerpt from the Grand Junction Sentinel:
“A decades-long arrangement where the Bureau of Land Management placed rounded-up wild horses in the care of inmates at a holding facility at the state prison in Cañon City is coming to an end.
The state Department of Corrections said Friday in a news release that it “regretfully confirms” that the long-standing Wild Horse Inmate Program will tentatively conclude at the end of November after the BLM notified the state Sept. 17 that it would not be renewing its contract with the state.
The contract is set to expire Tuesday, but the BLM requested, and the state agreed to, a 60-day extension to facilitate the transition.
BLM state spokesman Steven Hall indicated the decision was financially driven.
“It’s fairly simple, just rising costs. The cost of the BLM using that facility had increased,” he said.
The Department of Corrections said the program was a successful collaboration that provided unique vocational and rehabilitative skills to incarcerated people while supporting the BLM’s mission to manage and protect wild horses and burros.”