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https://theconversation.com/a-relentlessly-dull-world-the-case-for-adding-more-colour-to-nzs-grey-prisons-248665>
"Prisons are not colourful places. Typically, they are grey or some variation
of a monochrome colour scheme. But increasingly, such a limited palette is
being questioned for its impact on health and rehabilitation.
As the US journalist and broadcaster Michael Montgomery once wrote of the
supermax unit of Pelican Bay prison in California:
I saw a relentlessly dull world; just concrete and steel […] The monochrome
landscape seemed to permeate even the faces of the inmates here; men […] had
a pasty, ghostly pallor. It was difficult to imagine any kind of sustained
life here.
Prison greyness is partly due to the predominance of steel and concrete,
especially in high- and maximum-security units. But the furniture and fixtures
– tables, seats and toilets – are also often stainless-steel grey. In New
Zealand, even sentenced prisoners’ clothing is grey.
One reason for this is the Department of Corrections’ concern about gang
colours. New Zealand prisoners cannot keep any item of property with
gang-related colours. These prohibitions can be zealously but inconsistently
enforced.
As a prisoner once explained to me (when I was president of the Wellington
Howard League), a calculator he used for correspondence classes was allowed in
one unit but banned in another, simply because it had a blue strip on it.
Something similar was reported by the Prison Inspectorate in a 2019 report. In
that case, staff withheld “black underwear containing small amounts of blue
stitching. Staff confirmed this was their approach.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
