Thursday, June 09, 2005
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
On his way to Florida to check on the possible Tropical Storm Arlene, Bird stopped off in Tampa to look into a new program being tried in that area.
Bird and Senior Detention Officer Matthew Barfield stands inside the Pink Room at the Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center West.
Young people committed to juvenile detention centers have been known to scream, cuss, fight and generally lose control. Detention officers calm them through reason, advice, counseling and, in some cases, force.
Now the Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center West has begun using another tool: color. Strange as it sounds, out-of-control youths in the Tampa facility and two others around Florida are sometimes being put in special cells that have been painted pink.
Not just any pink, but a precise shade known as "Baker-Miller Pink" - kind of like Pepto-Bismol, only deeper.
The young inmates in the Tampa center stay for 15 minutes in the pink cell, which includes a toilet and a bunk with no mattress. It's part of a study on whether this special shade of pink really calms inmates, as some research suggests.
Anthony Schembri, secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, said he knows that many people will smirk at the notion that paint on the wall can change human behavior. But his job, he said, is to seek solutions to problems, even if they sound strange.
"Government needs to experiment," Schembri said. "That's why there are no Nobel Prizes in government, because we don't experiment, because we're too afraid. "
He had heard about the potential calming effects of pink rooms years ago. He used the technique at Rikers Island in New York and suggested trying it here. He also discussed it with Bird who pointed out the low incidence of violence between flamingos. Birds surrounded by all that pink just don't get agressive.
The department has relied in part on a paper published in the International Journal of Biosocial Research in 1981, which suggested that Baker-Miller Pink could suppress aggression. The research gained some notoriety in the 1980s end even was featured on the television show That's Incredible . That segment was used to train DJJ officers in the program.
"I have encountered skeptics, but the thing is, it does seem to work," said Sherry Jackson, a department researcher. More research is needed, she said, which is why DJJ is carefully documenting the effect of the pink rooms on the youths.
Jackson stressed that the pink rooms are not supposed to be humiliating.
"We try to treat this not as something punitive, but "this will help you calm down,"' she said.
What if the data shows that pink cells don't work? Schembri says he'll admit it and move on.
"I ain't afraid of making mistakes," he said.
DJJ spokesman Tom Denham said that even if it doesn't work, "What's the downside here? We've lost a couple gallons of paint?"
The Tampa Bay facility is now officially nominated for an end of the year Bird Award!
Bird and Senior Detention Officer Matthew Barfield stands inside the Pink Room at the Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center West.
Young people committed to juvenile detention centers have been known to scream, cuss, fight and generally lose control. Detention officers calm them through reason, advice, counseling and, in some cases, force.Now the Hillsborough Regional Juvenile Detention Center West has begun using another tool: color. Strange as it sounds, out-of-control youths in the Tampa facility and two others around Florida are sometimes being put in special cells that have been painted pink.
Not just any pink, but a precise shade known as "Baker-Miller Pink" - kind of like Pepto-Bismol, only deeper.
The young inmates in the Tampa center stay for 15 minutes in the pink cell, which includes a toilet and a bunk with no mattress. It's part of a study on whether this special shade of pink really calms inmates, as some research suggests.
Anthony Schembri, secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, said he knows that many people will smirk at the notion that paint on the wall can change human behavior. But his job, he said, is to seek solutions to problems, even if they sound strange.
"Government needs to experiment," Schembri said. "That's why there are no Nobel Prizes in government, because we don't experiment, because we're too afraid. "
He had heard about the potential calming effects of pink rooms years ago. He used the technique at Rikers Island in New York and suggested trying it here. He also discussed it with Bird who pointed out the low incidence of violence between flamingos. Birds surrounded by all that pink just don't get agressive.
The department has relied in part on a paper published in the International Journal of Biosocial Research in 1981, which suggested that Baker-Miller Pink could suppress aggression. The research gained some notoriety in the 1980s end even was featured on the television show That's Incredible . That segment was used to train DJJ officers in the program.
"I have encountered skeptics, but the thing is, it does seem to work," said Sherry Jackson, a department researcher. More research is needed, she said, which is why DJJ is carefully documenting the effect of the pink rooms on the youths.
Jackson stressed that the pink rooms are not supposed to be humiliating.
"We try to treat this not as something punitive, but "this will help you calm down,"' she said.
What if the data shows that pink cells don't work? Schembri says he'll admit it and move on.
"I ain't afraid of making mistakes," he said.
DJJ spokesman Tom Denham said that even if it doesn't work, "What's the downside here? We've lost a couple gallons of paint?"
The Tampa Bay facility is now officially nominated for an end of the year Bird Award!
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