The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-08-15
THE PRISON SUITS
DEFENDANTS DO NOT WEAR
THEM IN COURT.
High Sheriff Brown Replies To the
Remarks of Judge Gear Yesterday
Willie Forests Clothes.

The session in the Circuit Court yes
terday was what is known among the
court officials as an ff-Day'-that is
Judge Gear was not feeling well. Dur
ing the course of the session, the court
thought it was the opportunity of
handing a hot bunch" to High Sheriff
Brown and the Attorney General. A
blue suit of clothes worn by a little
defendant named Willie Forrest was
the red rag which set the Judge charg-
ing around.
The court declared that it was i'm
proper for Willie Forrest to be allow
ed to appear in the court in a convict
suit. Other judges had warned the
high Sheriff, declared the court, not to
permit prisoners in convict suits to b.
brought into the court. Every man is
presumed to be innocent" continued
Judge Gear, so you have no right to
drag him into court as if he were a
convict If the prisoner has no other
clothes then buy him some. If another
man is brought here in prison garb
particularly if he has not been con-
victed the court will take some action.
You will inform Mr.. A. NJ Brown of
that, officer"
Hot" as the court evidently intended
this to be, it was not half as hard a
jolt as the High Sheriff gave the Judge
Gear this morning in the course of an
interview with a representative of the
Star.
The statement attributed TO Judge
Gear, said High Sheriff Brown Ito the
effect that Willie Forrest was brought
in "A convict suit into the court, is in
correct The defendant was attired in
blue denim suit That suit was iden-
tically the same suit of clothes that he
wore at the time he was arrested by
| the police to answer to a charge of
stealing chicken, and it is the same
suit that he has worn ever since. IT
was not a prison suit in any sense of
the word and was not moreover, Civ
en- to the boy by the police or prison
officials as he secured it before he was
ever arrested
so far as permitting any prisoners to
appear in prison garb before the court
is concerned, that statement is also in
correct We do not consider such a
course proper and do not permit it. II
prisoner has to go into court on some
habeas corpus action or other causes he
is provided with an ordinary suit. The
police department has not had to be
warned about such a thing.
1T was Judge Humphreys who, some
time ago, raised the point that it was
improper to place men convicted of mis-
demeanOr, in a distinctive prison garb,
as was done with those convicted OF
felonies. Formerly, prisoners serving
time for felonies, were clothed in the
regular convict suit of striped blue and
white, While those convicted Of INSIDE
meanor offences, wore a half blue and
half brown suit. Judge Humphreys
raised the point that it was not right
to force a man serving sentence for
misdemeanor who was not in any sense
a convict, to wear a suit that was dis
tincuvely prison garb. AS the result
of this contention the suit of misde-
meanor prisoners was abolished Blue
denim has since been given them in
order that they should not wear a suit
that was distinctively a prison costume.
This blue denim suit it precisely the
same sort of clothes that many labor
ers on the water front and other places
wear and that many of our leading citi-
zens also wear when they go on hunt
ing or other trips into the mountains.
Those prisoners serving time for felo-
MES still wear the regular convict strip
ed. The result of this change has been
that now only one suit that is distinct
lively a prison suit, is now worn BY
prisoners and they are persons con-
Victed of felUnies. There is no longer
any distinct badge for the man SER
wing time for a misdemeanor offence"