Jail paints cells pink in hopes of soothing prisoners

Many jails around the
country have dabbled in pink.

TROY, Ohio (AP) — Inmates at western Ohio jail better be partial to pink when it comes to their cellblocks.

The Miami County Jail is joining others around the country that in recent years have painted cellblocks pink in hopes it will have a pacifying effect on prisoners.

The pink walls were the idea of Sheriff Charles Cox. Downtown jail administrator Dee Sandy selected a light pink for the walls and a purple called “thistle” for metal bars, bunks and doors.

She said the first time the sheriff mentioned the concept to her, she thought he was joking.

Both male and female inmates recently started coating the walls and bars on the third floor. The work will continue until the jail’s 10 cellblocks are done. Previously, the jail’s walls were cream-colored, and the bars were blue.

“It actually is really pretty,” Sandy said.

The jail population of up to 111 usually is about equally divided between women and men, with the men facing more violent charges, Sandy said.

Cox doesn’t see the new color choices as punitive or demeaning. He thinks the colors will brighten the cellblocks and help test the theories of calming.

“It is supposed to have a soothing effect,” Cox said.

Other jails around the country have dabbled in pink.

Last year, the Unicoi County jail in Erwin, Tenn., painted cell walls pink in hopes of calming inmates and curbing vulgar graffiti.

The Dallas County Detention Center in Buffalo, Mo., used a soft shade of pink with stenciled teddy bear accents in blue in an effort to better manage sometimes violent detainees. It was done as part of extensive repairs necessary after inmates set a fire and vandalized the interior in an escape attempt.

Pink paint jobs have not always gone over well.

In the early 1990s, the Kansas City Police Department covered the ceiling and door and part of the wall of the jail’s isolation room with a Pepto-Bismol shade of pink. Another cell was made bright pink. Door trims and moldings all around the jail were painted pink, accented with turquoise.

Officials said the pink didn’t have any discernible effect on the prisoners, who rarely spent more than 24 hours in the detention cell. But it really annoyed employees.

So, last year, painters covered nearly all the pink, replacing it with harbor gray on the floors, walls and bars, and dark royal blue on door trims and bunks.