page_title: Prison uniform
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Prison uniform / Prison uniform by nation / United Kingdom / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: Four men in prison uniform are standing in a line in front of bowls and baskets. Lithograph. Iconographic Collections
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: In the United Kingdom, prison uniforms formerly consisted of a white jacket, trousers and pillbox hat, all stamped with the broad arrow to denote crown property.
  The idea of covering the uniforms of Penal Servitude prisoners with the broad arrow was first introduced by Sir Edmund Du Cane in the 1870s after his appointment as Chairman of Convict Directors and Surveyor-General of Prisons. Du Cane considered the broad arrow to be a hindrance to escape and also a mark of shame. It was certainly unpopular with the convicts. “All over the whole clothing were hideous black impressions of the Broad Arrow”, wrote one prisoner. Another considered the “hideous dress” to be “the most extraordinary garb I had ever seen outside a pantomime”. Men sent to public-works prisons were issued with boots. One prisoner, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, left this description: “Fully fourteen pounds in weight. I put them on and the weight of them served to fasten me to the ground. It was not that alone, but the sight of the impression they left on the gutter as you looked at the footprints of those who walked before you, struck terror to your heart. There was the felon’s brand of the ‘broad arrow’ impressed on the soil by every footstep…the nails in the soles of your boots and shoes were hammered in an arrow shape, so that whatever ground you trod you left traces that Government property had travelled over it.” The broad arrow markings were used until 1922.
caption: British prison uniform, 19th century
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