Transcript Staff

The rodeo team from the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington took first place honors at the 67th annual Oklahoma prison rodeo at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester Aug. 18 and 19.

The 2007 JHCC rodeo team cowboys included Henry West, Jesse McFadden, Charles Wood, Wayne Thompson, Eddie Berry, Darryl Winters, Mike Ball, Chris Clawson, Chris Pitts and Patrick Hines.

Officials said JHCC won the year’s “braggin’ rights” to first place. In addition, Winters, a Jones native, won “Top Bareback” honors.

Except for a handful of years when it was canceled because of World War II or an inmate uprising in the 1970s, McAlester’s rodeo has endured, along with the one hosted by the state prison in Angola, La., even as rising costs and liability concerns have closed the show in Huntsville and at penitentiaries in Mississippi and North Dakota.

The rodeo is a mixture of competitions featuring both inmate and professional contestants, with inmates participating in rough stock events and professionals competing in roping events, as well as barrel racing and steer wrestling.

New this year was the addition of teams from the state’s two female prison institutions. More than two dozen women from the Mabel Bassett and Eddie Warrior correctional centers went head to head against their male counterparts in rough stock and special events — bull riding, bronc riding, the wild horse race, bull poker and “Money the hard way,” where inmates try to grab a sack worth $100 from between the horns of a bull.

In McAlester, inmates practice using an old, mechanical bull, but some prisons use real animals.

About 140 inmates from 10 correctional facilities participated in this year’s rodeo, officials said.

The rodeo is officially sanctioned by the International Professional Rodeo Association.