Dangers of pink jails

TROY, Ohio (AP) — Inmates at the Miami County Jail in Troy are under orders to paint the cellblocks pink to test the sheriff’s theory that the color will have a pacifying affect on prisoners.

Sheriff Charles Cox says he’s entering the academic debate over the color pink’s calming abilities.Jail administrator Dee Sandy says the first time the sheriff mentioned the concept to her, she thought he was joking. Not so. She ended up picking a shade of purple for the jail bars.

Previously, the jail’s walls were cream-colored and the bars were painted blue.The jail, about 20 miles north of Dayton, houses up to 111 inmates.

Uh, I may be wrong, but I think this was tried here in Cabell County about 20 or 30 years ago. The sheriff had the walls of the drunk tank painted pink in order to calm people picked up for public intoxication. What happened was that instead of calming drunks, the pink walls actually agitated them, so the walls were repainted a different color.

To each drunk his own, I guess.

As for stone-cold sober me, I don't like pink walls. My office walls are white. I would prefer three walls of light gray with one wall of a plum or mauve for contrast and to make the room appear larger. About three inches down from the top of the mauve wall, I would like a two-inch stripe of gray matching the other walls. My window sills could be white for more contrast.

That would be too much for jail cell, though.