Prison Uniforms
Stripes and Pink Underwear
By Daniel Muniz

The common garb for inmates in many state prisons is the orange or yellow jumpsuit. Federal prisons typically require khaki pants and shirts. The uniforms of other correctional institutions can also include blue jeans and light blue denim work shirts or even the two piece surgical scrub.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County was outraged at how prisoners would dress in the uniform of a professional especially since they did something reprehensible to justify a stay in jail. Their outward appearance did not seem to connect with the severity of their incarceration. In fact, it often resulted in the very opposite by boosting the tough guy image and machismo among inmates. So instead of the prison garb being a source of shame, it has taken on mythic proportions in our popular culture.

The brutal truth is that inmates are outcasts and misfits of society.

They are locked up and segregated from the rest of us for a very specific reason. So regardless of how noble the intention may be that prisoners ought to have their self-esteem boosted with less degrading clothing, they are still outcasts because of their unacceptable behavior. Rehabilitation should always play an integral role to incarceration but it should not diminish the role of punishment.

Consequently, Sheriff Arpaio decided to do something about the appearance of his prisoners.

He brought back the outmoded white outfit with the highly recognizable black bee stripes. Although such uniforms haven’t been used in decades, Hollywood and popular culture have immortalized that particular image with numerous caricatures. The black bee stripes symbolize the shame of being an outcast of society while being highly recognizable to the public in that the wearer of this uniform is a criminal.

However, as our penal system modernized throughout the generations, the once universally recognized prison garb that was popular throughout the country was eventually discarded by nearly all correctional institutions. Self-esteem replaced shame with prison uniforms especially with the use of jumpsuits and surgical scrubs. Although the orange and yellow jumpsuits still have a very distinctive look since they are very bright colors, there have always been plenty of professionals who wear similar uniforms in their day-today jobs.

But the similarity to professionals was definitely intentional when correctional institutions adopted the new garb. Instead of making convicts feel ridiculous in the white outfit with black bee stripes, their new appearance gave them the image of a qualified specialist or at the very least, hardworking laborers. The new attire was supposed to give the prison population a sense of accomplishment for completing an honest day’s work.

Sheriff Arpaio felt that such distinctions were total nonsense.

Regardless of whatever the purpose was, an inmate is still a criminal so Arpaio revived the white outfit with black bee stripes and required all of his prisoners to wear them. And if the inmates did feel ridiculous wearing a comical prison uniform, then so be it. The next best thing an inmate could do is to not go back to his jail.

Although the rest of the country has not followed Sheriff Arpaio’s lead, he has certainly created an impact in public justice circles in that he ignited debate about whether or not shame can be brought back into incarceration. He also encouraged more discussion about the nature of punishment.

Granted, self-esteem is an important component of rehabilitation particularly to an inmate who has a troubled past but it has to be earned instead of given away. The uniform of a professional may indeed give the impression that a hoodlum is not a dreg of society but it has nothing to do with boosting self-esteem.

But Arpaio didn’t stop there. To further add to this shame, he also requires his inmates to wear pink underwear.

Such a provocative act outraged the “hug a thug” crowd because they saw it as a brazen act of humiliating prisoners. It was difficult to effectively dispute the white outfit with black bee stripes since such garb was once the norm a century ago but many activists felt that they had a legitimate beef in protesting the sheriff about pink underwear.

However, there is a pretty sharp distinction between shame and humiliation.

Humiliation would be if the requirement was for inmates to wear pink panties with floral designs. Women’s panties would cross the line into abuse because it would have disturbing implications to anyone who was required to wear them. Nevertheless, pink men’s underwear is simply a shaming action and there is absolutely nothing wrong with making it a component of punishment.

As a result, no longer can hoodlums strut around jail with macho bravado while trying to look tough amongst his peers. Pink underwear and the white outfit with black bee stripes not only makes them look laughable but it also takes away that tough guy image.

The bottom line is that jail should not be a place that anyone should be proud to have been through. Jail is a place of punishment that is unpleasant and unsavory. And the more that society can make it as such, the more seriously we can take criminals.

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