Prisoners in pink: Deterrent or scarlet mark of danger?
Con raises hue, cry over punishing color
By Ron Barnett
USA TODAY
Punishing prisoners for sexual misconduct by making them wear pink places them in peril, a South Carolina inmate says in a lawsuit against the state's penal system.
The suit is the latest development in a nationwide effort by prison and jail officials to tap the power of pink to subdue criminals.
In the South Carolina case, Sherone Nealous claims that forcing inmates to wear pink is discriminatory and makes them more likely to be assaulted by other inmates. Nealous is serving time at the Allendale Correctional Institution for assault and battery with intent to kill, aggravated assault and assault and battery on a police officer.
"When the inmate population views an inmate wearing a pink jumpsuit, it is known that the clothing was assigned by (the Department of Corrections) as punishment for sexual misconduct," states a legal memorandum filed by the department. It "conveys no suggestion that the inmate wearing the jumpsuit is a willing participant in homosexual activity or otherwise vulnerable to … assault."
Jon Ozmint, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, and Russell Harter, an attorney representing the prison system, declined to comment further because of the ongoing litigation.
Court documents say pink was chosen as the identifying mark for inmates involved in sexual activity partly because other colors were taken — yellow for segregation units, dark green on death row — but also because the system's prisoners don't like wearing pink, which "contributes to its deterrent effect," the memo states.
South Carolina's pink policy applies to male and female inmates. Josh Gelinas, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Corrections, said he doesn't know of other prisons that use pink jumpsuits for those engaging in sexual activity.
Elsewhere, though, pink is used in creative correctional ways.
Sheriff Clint Low, in Mason County, Texas, was looking to cut down on repeat offenders in his small-town jail. Not only did he put all inmates in pink jumpsuits, he put them in pink shoes, pink underwear and pink socks. He painted cell walls pink and put in pink sheets and towels.
The effect: a 68% reduction in return customers, Low said.
"It's not about trying to humiliate people. It's simply that with them not liking it, they're embarrassed by it, and they don't want to come back," Low said.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix is a pioneer in the properties of pink. He started dying prisoners' underwear pink because they were smuggling them out to sell on the black market for the jail logo.
"Why would I give them a color they like?" he said. "They're in jail." Prisoners in pink: Deterrent or scarlet mark of danger?
Con raises hue, cry over punishing color
By Ron Barnett
USA TODAY
Punishing prisoners for sexual misconduct by making them wear pink places them in peril, a South Carolina inmate says in a lawsuit against the state's penal system.
The suit is the latest development in a nationwide effort by prison and jail officials to tap the power of pink to subdue criminals.
In the South Carolina case, Sherone Nealous claims that forcing inmates to wear pink is discriminatory and makes them more likely to be assaulted by other inmates. Nealous is serving time at the Allendale Correctional Institution for assault and battery with intent to kill, aggravated assault and assault and battery on a police officer.
"When the inmate population views an inmate wearing a pink jumpsuit, it is known that the clothing was assigned by (the Department of Corrections) as punishment for sexual misconduct," states a legal memorandum filed by the department. It "conveys no suggestion that the inmate wearing the jumpsuit is a willing participant in homosexual activity or otherwise vulnerable to … assault."
Jon Ozmint, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, and Russell Harter, an attorney representing the prison system, declined to comment further because of the ongoing litigation.
Court documents say pink was chosen as the identifying mark for inmates involved in sexual activity partly because other colors were taken — yellow for segregation units, dark green on death row — but also because the system's prisoners don't like wearing pink, which "contributes to its deterrent effect," the memo states.
South Carolina's pink policy applies to male and female inmates. Josh Gelinas, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Corrections, said he doesn't know of other prisons that use pink jumpsuits for those engaging in sexual activity.
Elsewhere, though, pink is used in creative correctional ways.
Sheriff Clint Low, in Mason County, Texas, was looking to cut down on repeat offenders in his small-town jail. Not only did he put all inmates in pink jumpsuits, he put them in pink shoes, pink underwear and pink socks. He painted cell walls pink and put in pink sheets and towels.
The effect: a 68% reduction in return customers, Low said.
"It's not about trying to humiliate people. It's simply that with them not liking it, they're embarrassed by it, and they don't want to come back," Low said.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix is a pioneer in the properties of pink. He started dying prisoners' underwear pink because they were smuggling them out to sell on the black market for the jail logo.
"Why would I give them a color they like?" he said. "They're in jail."
There may be more to the pink effect than outlaws not liking the color, according to Alexander Schauss, who first documented the effects of pink jail cells in the 1970s.
Before painting "drunk tanks" pink at the U.S. Naval Correctional Center in Seattle, the facility had an average of one assault on staff per day, said Schauss, senior director of natural and medicinal products research at AIBMR Life Sciences, in Puyallup, Wash. After it went pink, there was only one assault over the next six months, he said.
There may be more to the pink effect than outlaws not liking the color, according to Alexander Schauss, who first documented the effects of pink jail cells in the 1970s.
Before painting "drunk tanks" pink at the U.S. Naval Correctional Center in Seattle, the facility had an average of one assault on staff per day, said Schauss, senior director of natural and medicinal products research at AIBMR Life Sciences, in Puyallup, Wash. After it went pink, there was only one assault over the next six months, he said.
I really do like the way the Sheriff thinks.
Pink for Prisoners...
Linear Mode
