page_title: Prison uniform
section_title: United States of America
hierarchical_section_title: Prison uniform / Prison uniform by nation / United States of America
caption_attribution_description: English: Group of polygamists in the Utah Penitentiary, 8 men standing in prison stripes.
context_page_description: A prison uniform is the unified outward appearance of detainees in a situation of imprisonment. It is typically adapted under constraint.
  Usually a prison uniform consists of a visually distinct garment, which must be worn by an incarcerated person instead of his or her individual civilian clothes. In most cases it is purposefully designed to establish a visual contrast to the outward appearance of prison officers and set up a clear distinction from civil clothing.
  A prison uniform serves the purpose to make prisoners instantly identifiable, to limit risks through concealed objects and to prevent injuries through undesignated clothing objects. It can also spoil attempts of escape as prison uniforms typically use a design and color scheme that is easily noticed and identified even at a greater distance.
  A conception for a prison uniform can further purposefully exclude items of otherwise standard clothing as a discrete identifier. This often includes a restriction in terms of footwear, hereby forcing prisoners to remain barefoot as a part of their dress code.
context_section_description: Prison uniforms in the United States often consist of a distinctive orange jumpsuit or scrubs with a white T-shirt underneath set to make escape more difficult, as it is difficult for an escaped inmate to avoid recognition and recapture in such a distinctive attire. Originally a horizontal white and black bee-striped uniform and hat was used.
  Striped prison uniforms commonly used in the 19th century (the Auburn system) began to be abolished in parts of the United States early in the 20th century because their continued use as a badge of shame was considered undesirable.
  Throughout most of the twentieth century, attitudes were different towards philosophies of rehabilitation. Fair treatment of prisoners and a growing number of non-violent, working-class offenders prompted such a change in attitudes, and clothing and conditions changed to serve the concept of rehabilitation rather than punishment. As a result, work clothes were introduced, perhaps because of the concept of honest labor helping to turn an inmate into an honest citizen. Blue jeans and light blue denim or chambray work shirts became the norm, a tradition still followed in some state prison systems today. In federal prisons, this concept was introduced in the form of khaki pants and shirts, still in use.
  At the end of the 20th century, orange jumpsuits and white T-Shirts became commonplace, mostly for cost issues then later on orange scrubs and white T-Shirts.  In many cases, prison uniforms are better suited to the comfort and durability required for long term inmates, and these new uniforms are used mostly in local jails for short term inmates and offenders awaiting trial or transportation to a more permanent facility.  Striped uniforms, in general, have made a significant comeback into the jail and prison system for a variety of reasons, such as mistaking jumpsuit-clad workers as inmates.  False reporting of people in similar clothing has become a problem in some counties, so many have switched back to using striped uniforms (Mostly Orange and White) due to the unambiguous nature of these garments being associated with inmates.
  In July 2014, because the popular television program Orange Is the New Black was making the orange jumpsuits of his prison fashionable, Saginaw County, Michigan Sheriff William Federspiel decided to replace them with traditional black-and-white-striped uniforms.
caption: Prisoners in Utah c.1885 wearing the horizontally-striped prison uniforms devised at Auburn Prison.
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