Comment of the day, perhaps the week...

[PCIntern]

David Shuster was interviewing the warden of the jail where they're making the inmates wear pink underwear b/c there is a black market out here for prison underwear. Who knew?

Anyway, Shuster asked him if he was using the pink underwear as an 'excuse' to humiliate the prisoners under his 'care', and the warden replied with a real sneer, "I don't need any 'excuses'."

I'm telling you, I almost laughed out loud, and quite frankly, with the state of the world as it is, this is about the dumbest story YET after Paris Hilton and her foibles, but it's all been worth it to hear that retort. Pretty Creepy and Very Frightening.

PS They've been working this story ALL DAY. Shows you what goes on on the weekends on MSRNC.

[ret5hd]

1. Sounds like Maricopa County, AZ...the guy is a psychological sadist, getting...

his jollies off of tormenting people.

My personal fantasy about him is very similar to the movie "Shawshank Redemption".

[krispos42]

2. There's a sheriff out there someplace...

I forget where, but he scrapped all of the standard-color prison clothing and replaced it all with bright pink stuff. I mean like bubble-gum pink. Like hot pink. Like shocking pink.

Then he got pink sheets, pink towels, pink pillowcases, pink blankets, and painted all the jailcells pink.

And you know what? The re-arrest rate plummetted.

http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Justice_and_Public_Safety&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=21677

[treestar]

3. How a mere color can have that much effect

It's amazing.

When my nephews were little, they had a set of cans of Playdough. It was all used up and dried out except the pink can.

How do they know? Is it genetic? Or can kids that young just realize that it's the "wrong" color?

All the Barbie stuff being pink might contribute to it.

[krispos42]

8. It's a direct attack on masculinity

I wouldn't want to wear anything pink. I wouldn't flip out about it, but I wouldn't be happy either.

Prison time is no longer really seen as a stigma anymore. Society as a whole doesn't make a big deal out of prison time, so the inmates seem to care less about being in prison. The pink seems to bring some of the stigma back.

[treestar]

9. What to do to the female prisoners?

The mind numbs.

[Mnemosyne]

4. While living in AL in the mid-nineties, some of the chain gang prisoners

in pink jumpsuits. The sheriff said it was done to inmates that tried to intimidate the female guards by masturbating in front of them and the punishment was the pink jumpsuits.

I hated seeing those chain gangs. Inhumane and humiliating, imo.

[annabanana]

5. There was laughter in the studio. .

This is the FIRST time I've seen this idiot sherrif interviewed where he wasn't being "lauded" for his "innovative" incarceration techniques.

They really hung him out to dry.. (Black Market in used prison underwear. . .lololol)

[TwilightGardener]

6. Psychologically speaking, pink is supposed to be a calming color.

Maybe it helps cut down on violence? I don't think there's anything all that humiliating about pink underwear--my husband and sons have worn a few pairs after I threw a red shirt into the wash, and they survived the ordeal. If it helps undercut the macho violent prison culture and leads to less recidivism, I don't see what the problem is--they ARE in jail, after all--it IS a punishment--I don't think they should have prisoner-focus-grouped colors.

[PCIntern]

7. Yes, I was just referring

to the warden's comment that he didn't require any excuses to humiliate prisoners, the implication being that he could do it anytime he wanted to...to quote all the Rethugs, "at his pleasure".

[TwilightGardener]

10. Yes, that quote IS a little disturbing.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

11. Should be really nice people by the time they get out.

Then, stimulated by color, they will explode in long contained anger.

Or will they by then have managed to control their impulses?

[Katherine Brengle]

12. Why no discussion of why a color society has associated with

women is used to humiliate men?

Because being like a woman is the ultimate insult of course.

Barf.