Prison stripes make comeback

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 25, 1999 by CARL MANNING AP

Thomas County sheriff has inmates in black-and-white stripes.

--- The Associated Press

By CARL MANNING

The Associated Press

COLBY --- On the high Plains, people once lived in isolated sod houses, lawmen caught criminals on horseback and convicts wore black- and-white-striped prison suits.

Now, houses are brick or wood in neighborhoods, and lawmen have computers and cruisers. But in Thomas County, prisoners are wearing stripes again.

Inside the small, well-kept jail, it is a scene out of a 1930s movie. Prisoners sit or sleep clad in shirts and pants with 3-inch- wide stripes. The matching skull cap is optional.

"It looks like a Monopoly suit. It looks like the same old uniform, but it's OK, though," said one 19-year-old man arrested on a charge of aggravated assault.

The inmate, who didn't want his family to see his name in print, spent his time behind bars watching television while lying on a mattress on the floor.

"The suit is supposed to fit the crime. If you get charged, it lets people know you are a criminal," he said.

Sheriff Thomas Jones, who became the first in Kansas to outfit inmates in stripes in December 1997, makes no apologies for the uniforms. So far, most sheriffs haven't followed his lead.

"I don't want it to be the nicest jail they've ever been in. If there is a little humility by wearing a black-and-white uniform, so be it," he said.

And, with a touch of humor in his voice, he added, "If they escape, they will be picked out in a crowd. They will either be nude or in stripes."

The idea of the stripes started with Undersheriff Mike Baughn.

"From the historical aspect, I thought it would be interesting," he said. I thought it would be historically neat to have uniforms like they used to."

Baughn said prison stripes were fairly common decades ago, but like most things, times change. Orange jumpsuits have become standard jail fare, but Baughn said they fade over time and don't stand out in a crowd.

Jones, sheriff since 1985, said he liked the idea and quietly changed the uniforms. The change went unnoticed, for the most part, until some prisoners in the new outfits were brought into court for some pretrial procedures.

The prisoners wear the outfits while in jail, on work details and some pretrial court appearances. They wear regular clothes for their trials.

"I don't see it as being punitive or undignified. It is just what the sheriff has chosen to utilize, and I respect his judgment," said District Judge Glenn Shiffner.

Jones said humiliation wasn't the reason for the changeover, but if wearing stripes makes somebody think twice about committing crime in his county, so much the better.

"They are all treated equally and fairly. Regardless of their beliefs, they all wear black-and-white uniforms," he said with a chuckle.

Like most rural sheriffs, Jones faces the usual property crimes, like car theft and break-ins, with a mix of violence and a few meth makers tossed in.

And like others in law enforcement, when Jones feels he is doing the right thing, he doesn't care about what his critics might think.

"I tell them I run this jail; you run your jail. I'm not here to create good opinions with civil libertarians so some do-gooder can blow his horn," he said.

Jones is among few sheriffs around the nation dressing prisoners in stripes, which he purchases from Bob Barker Co. Inc., one of the larger suppliers of jail outfits in the nation.

Barker, president of the company, said there are maybe 50 jails nationally using the striped uniforms.

"It is the visibility of it. Immediately, people recognize it as the old classical uniform for jail," Barker said from his suburban Raleigh, N.C., office.

The only other place using stripes in Kansas appears to be Cowley County in south-central Kansas. Earlier this year, inmates at that facility began wearing black-and-white-striped coveralls with "Cowley County Jail" on the back in red letters.

The state Department of Corrections has no plans to switch to stripes because of the cost of replacing inmates' blue-shirt, denim- pants uniform, said spokesman Bill Miskell.

The American Corrections Association, which accredits state prisons, said it is unaware of any state facility dressing inmates in stripes.

Prison