Dress Up America Adult Prisoner Costume for Adults

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Every prisoner who is not allowed to wear his or her own clothing shall be provided with an outfit of clothing suitable for the climate and adequate to keep him or her good health. Such clothing shall in no manner be degrading or humiliating. Vinciguerra, Thomas (2000-10-01). "The Clothes That Make The Inmate". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-04-22 . Retrieved 2021-06-06.

Stein, Harry (2007). Buchenwald memorial (ed.). Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937-1945. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung (in German) (5thed.). Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag. pp.81–83. ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6. In today's Germany, inmates may wear regular civilian clothing in some prisons. In other prisons clothing issued by the prison is compulsory. If a prisoner cannot afford to have his own clothing cleaned and/or replaced, they may be issued with clothing. There are also facilities with no prison uniforms. [7] [8]Rewind more than twenty years to the mid-1990s, when former Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio notoriously instituted pink underwear for incarcerated citizens of Tent City jail in Maricopa County (which is now closed). A long time coming, in 2012 a federal court ruled that "'the dress-out in pink appears to be punishment without legal justification,'" noting that "it's fair to infer that the selection of pink as the underwear color was meant to symbolize the loss of prisoners' masculinity." Pratt, John Clark (2002). Punishment and civilization: penal tolerance and intolerance in modern society. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage. p. 76. ISBN 0-7619-4753-1. The distinctive prison stripes were abolished in 1904. …stripes had come to be looked upon as a badge of shame and were a constant humiliation and irritant to many prisoners' (Report of the New York (State) Prison Department, 1904: 22) Today, uniforms generally serve the practical purpose of providing a means to differentiate inmates from civilians and staff as well as to distinguish custody levels. In California, for example, orange jumpsuits are reserved for new inmates who haven’t yet been classified. Those in the general population wear some variation of blue, white and grey—for men, jeans or blue scrubs-like pants and shirt, as well as white t-shirts and grey sweatshirts. Women wear the same basic clothing—blue and white shirts and blue, chambray or denim pants. Inmates working on the perimeter—including those outside the prison gates—wear a green jumpsuit.

Prison uniforms are intended to make prisoners instantly identifiable, limit risks through concealed objects and prevent injuries through undesignated clothing objects. A prison uniform 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. Wearing a prison uniform is typically done only reluctantly and is often perceived as stigmatizing, and as an invasion into the autonomy of decision. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners first adopted in 1955 and amended in 2015 as "Mandela Rules" prohibit degrading or humiliating clothing, requiring in Rule 19 that:

A group of incarcerated men photographed in 1895 in Utah. From Hoaxes, Humbugs and Spectacles by Mark Sloan (1990) In the 1950s, when CIW moved to an isolated location east of Los Angeles, the pretense of uniforms was dropped. CIW Frontera, as it was then called, did not have gates or barbed wire or fences; its remote location made them unnecessary. While there were institutional rules, women could move with relative freedom and wear their own clothes, just like the staff. As gender equality swept the public sphere, women began to don uniforms. By the 1990s, women at CIW wore state-issued clothing just like the men. Some women at the time believed that the prison likewise became more de rigeur. Institutions, in fact, often echo this regulation in their incoming detainee handbooks, stating that it is an "inmate right and responsibility" to have "proper bedding and clothing." Expectedly, however, many if not most facilities inarguably fall short on delivering this cited human right.

Costumes provide a unique opportunity to step into someone else's shoes, to embrace a different persona, and to express yourself in a way that everyday clothing might not allow. A prisoner outfit allows you to tap into your rebellious side, showcasing your desire to break free from societal norms and expectations. Photographed here in 1963, the final group of inmates was chaperoned off Alcatraz Island as its infamous prison shut down. They are pictured here in plain, two-piece outfits, a style denoting the move away from the striped uniform. From Inside the Walls of Alcatraz, Frank Heaney (1927).All clothing shall be clean and kept in proper condition. Underclothing shall be changed and washed as often as necessary for the maintenance of hygiene. Hot pink jail jumpsuits remind inmates who's in charge, guards say". ABC7 Chicago . Retrieved 2022-10-03. Instituted in Philadelphia, the benevolence of this act didn't quite translate to other prisons in the U.S. at the time. In New York, for example, the introduction of a more consistent prison outfit shifted from a focus on normality, to a focus on explicit differentiation. In the later 1790s and through the early 1800s, uniforms were introduced to loudly call out the convicted nature of the incarcerated: they were colorful or other otherwise categorically differentiating, and were deliberately humiliating.