Inmates Express Themselves With Chalk At Rogers County Jail

The Rogers County jail houses around 200 inmates at any given time. That many people with nothing to do, boredom sets in. Inmates doodle and draw and it often ends up on the walls, which have to be constantly repainted. It's ugly and costs taxpayers money

But, Rogers County figured out a way to avoid that cost.

Melvin Duran has been in the Rogers County jail a couple of months for not paying his fines on a stealing charge. Before jail, he drove a forklift for a living, but his fellow inmates say he's also an artist.

He drew everything on a chalk section of the jail wall.

"It doesn't represent anything in particular, just random doodles, whatever comes to mind, pretty much," Duran said.

The jail is in the process of putting a chalk section in every pod in the jail. The inmates must first paint all the walls to make them clean, then they spray the chalk section onto the wall. Then it becomes the designated area for doodling.

"If it's something inappropriate, it's coming down and the chalk will go away," said Major Bob Darby, jail administrator.

"Earlier, we had Halloween skulls. We are not that Halloweeney here. If they drew a pumpkin, OK."

And, indeed, there is a pumpkin that got to stay.

The inmates can erase the drawings anytime with water and a towel. In the pods with the chalk boards, the walls remain clean, but in the pods where there's no chalkboard section yet, inmates write all over. They write all kinds of messages and the jail has tries to paint over them, but they keep popping up again.

Major Darby says this solution has been a success.

"They still have their freedom of speech, to an extent and it gives them something to do," he said.

The inmates like the creativity and that it brings a little color to a drab place and also respect the limitations.

Melvin is the one who drew the skulls that were removed.

"I see the point of it, they don't want to send the wrong message to anyone," said Rogers County inmate Melvin Duran.

Some people might say, why not just tell the inmates they can't draw on the walls and be done with it.

As one jail administrator told me, you can't even do that in high schools or work places to an extent, that some people will doodle on whatever is handy when they're bored.