‘Designer Cells’ Give Modern-Day Meaning to ‘Cooling One’s Heels’ : Penal system: As more and more Americans are kept behind bars, jails are being designed to minimize unrest.

The Baker-Miller shade of pink on the walls was supposed to have a calming effect on inmates. It did, but not for long.

“It worked for about 15 minutes,” said Ann Balazs, resident color expert with Pennsylvania designers L. Robert Kimball & Associates. “After that, they went nuts.”

Picking a wall paint may seem a trifle, but in the growing field of prison design it is often the little things that count.

Like where to put the exterior plate-glass windows now used to let in more natural light. In rural settings, waist-high windows work fine. In urban areas, inmates’ temptation to moon passersby proves irresistible.

The Ebensburg, Pa., firm founded by Balazs’ father has learned that lesson and countless others in 12 years of designing more than 30 correctional facilities, from federal prisons to county jails. Executives say that revenues have risen to $26 million from $12 million in five years, and there is no sign of a slowdown.

That is because more and more people are being incarcerated. The number behind bars has ballooned to nearly 1.1 million from about 500,000 in 1980, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency has predicted that there will be 2 million inmates by 1995.

The prisons and jails built today are a far cry from the ones pictured in old Edward G. Robinson movies. Gone are the drab corridors painted government green or hospital white. Designers are experimenting with blues, yellows and earth tones. Baker-Miller pink failed to make the grade because researchers found that its soothing effect was temporary. Balazs said the color is ideal for holding pens.

To make prisons and jails more livable, designers have included air conditioning, upholstery and carpeting. Stainless-steel toilets--once used because they were all but impossible to rip from the floor--are giving way to ceramic fixtures, some with seats.

Wardens can hold out such amenities as carrots to inmates who want to earn better living quarters.

Even the exteriors have a different look. The bars, barbed wire and blockhouse style of older facilities made them easy to recognize. Modern prisons and jails are built to blend in with the surrounding area.

L. Robert Kimball’s newest jail, the Hillsborough County Correctional Facility in Manchester, N. H., looks more like an office complex, complete with landscaping. Other facilities have skylights, columns or floor-to-ceiling windows.

Architects and wardens alike stress that common sense, rather than aesthetics, is behind the changes. The overall design aims to keep a lid on tensions and forestall trouble.

“You used to have 100 inmates in a cellblock that was dark and filthy and not fit to be lived in. That created a very volatile situation,” said Kevin Drinan, Hillsborough’s director of corrections.

He believes that better living conditions make for better inmates.

“Generally speaking, when you treat people like animals they act like animals,” he said.

Critics complain that the softer style has scant effect on hardened criminals. If anything, they say, it sends the wrong message.

“If prisons are cushy places, no one will mind going there,” said Edwin Delattre, who teaches applied ethics at Boston University and recently wrote “Character and Cops.”

“The purpose of prisons is to punish. It’s unjust if they are too comfortable,” he said.

Like other modern jails, Hillsborough is designed according to the direct-supervision model approved by the National Institute of Corrections. The building is divided into self-contained areas that usually house 48 to 56 inmates. The inmates sleep, shower and dine in those areas, whose cells are arranged around a large day room.

“In the old days, you used to take the inmates to the services. Now, you take the services to the inmates,” said Czaba Balazs, L. Robert Kimball’s chief architect and son-in-law to the firm’s founder and president.

Because direct-supervision prisons require more space, Balazs said, they cost 10% to 15% more than old-style facilities, but they are less expensive in the long run because they require about half as many guards.

Because inmates are always within view of guards, there are fewer fights, according to a National Institute of Corrections study. And the safer the environment, the less likely inmates will resort to vandalism or violence in the hope of being separated from others.

Moreover, guards in direct-supervision facilities are assigned to the same areas and encouraged to work closely with inmates so they can identify problems before they get out of hand.

“A great part of it depends on the ability of the corrections officer not to be a tough guy, but to be a good communicator,” said Hillsborough’s Drinan. “In many cases, all these inmates need is someone who’ll listen to them.”

That hands-on approach combined with design changes can be an effective defense against trouble, including uprisings and riots, Balazs said.

“The environment can have a direct impact on the level of stress. It’s no different than you or I getting irritated because of working conditions--but at least we have options,” he said.