NCJ Number
76932
Date Published
1981
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This study investigates whether painting a cell pink was beneficial for calming 50 aggressive arrestees at the Sheriff's North County Correctional Facility, a municipal intake facility in Dale City, Calif.
Abstract
The room itself was a concrete 'holding cell,' the four walls and the ceiling of which were painted 'Baker-Miller' pink. The study's sample population was divided into three classifications: (1) (verbal violence), (2) (violence against objects) and (3) (violence against staff or other arrestees). Information was gathered by the staff on the subject's sex, behavior at admittance and dismissal from room, and the time spent in the room. The statistical analysis indicates that each subject remained a mean time of 14.58 minutes in the room. The most significant finding was that all categories of arrestees showed a marked improvement with the exception of the category, in which an improvement was observed in only 50 percent of the sample population. Furthermore, the room seemed to work equally well with male and female arrestees. The room had the strongest effect on persons venting verbal frustrations and tended to become less effective with the most aggressive clients. The study is somewhat restricted in its validity because of the lack of a control group placed in a duplicate room under duplicate conditions without the color coding. Nevertheless, the information supports a pink room in correctional intake facilities. The statistical results and the study instruments used are appended. Chapter references are included.