Judge to rule on pink jumpsuits

COLUMBIA --- Behind South Carolina's drab prison walls, the colors of clothing can mean a lot.

An inmate wearing something red would likely be linked to the Bloods street gang. Blue is the color for the Crips, a rival gang.

Unless you're a guard, the state wouldn't put you in those colors.

Most inmates wear tan jumpsuits. Yellow ones are for prisoners in isolation; green for those sentenced to die; orange for the ones transferred from county jails.

Now, a federal judge has to decide on the most controversial of the jumpsuit colors: pink.

Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Norton is expected to soon consider whether South Carolina prison officials were out of line when they forced inmates who commit sex acts behind bars to wear the bright pink jumpsuits. The color could incite "attacks on a person's manhood" in an all-male environment, one inmate claims in a lawsuit.

"It can only be seen by a reasonable person as a way to exploit homosexuals and endanger those who may not be homosexuals by grouping them with homosexuals," argued Sherone Nealous, who is serving a 10-year sentence for assault and battery with intent to kill. "The color 'pink' in an all male environment no doubt causes derision and verbal and physical attacks on a person's manhood."

In June 2006, Mr. Nealous, 31, filed a federal lawsuit over the policy, claiming that the Corrections Department "is placing inmates' lives and physical well-being in danger." In early February, jurors deadlocked over whether the jumpsuit color constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and violates inmates' civil rights.

In court documents dated in August, South Carolina prisons Director Jon Ozmint said that, while pink was identified as one of only a few colors not already in use, he knew the color would be unpopular among inmates -- hopefully stemming bad behavior in the future.

Mr. Ozmint said he had not heard of any assaults on an inmate wearing a pink jumpsuit among South Carolina's 24,000-strong prisoner population.

A prisons spokesman said hundreds of inmates have had to wear pink jumpsuits since the program went on the books in 2005.