Prison Runway

One of my patients today is the prison seamstress. She is responsible for crafting all of the fashionable prison "greens." A typical prison outfit is comprised of a dark green top and pants --very similar to scrubs. Each outfit is emblazoned with the offender's name and DOC number. Prisoners also sport bright yellow t-shirts, gray sweatshirts, and carhart jackets.



However, if an offender is in trouble, she is taken to the seg unit in an orange jumpsuit, which is also the outfit of choice if she has to be taken off the prison grounds to the ER, for example. When people are out of seg but still in trouble, they wear orange pants with their green tops, similar to a scarlet letter.

Prison footwear leaves much to be desired, especially for the slew of people I've seen lately with bunions, MTP arthritis, and plantar fasciitis. Most people are given a pair of black boots, but it is possible for the offenders to buy New Balance sneakers. Today I tried to order a wider pair of shoes for an inmate...we'll see how that goes.

Just because personal expression may be limited by fashion doesn't mean the offenders don't go all out with eye shadow. They have some of the best applied eye shadow I have ever seen. I could use some smoky eye pointers. Many kinds of make up are available on canteen for purchase. Some ladies had the great foresight to have make up tattooed right on before they came to prison, eliminating the need for pesky eyebrow pencil.

I learned on one of my first days in prison that, although incarcerated, prisoners still want to look nice and feel good about their appearance. One lady broke my heart when, during her asthma visit, she asked if her "face would always be like this." She developed Bell's Palsy a year and a half ago and still has some noticeable motor deficits in the left side of her face. My heart broke when she started crying after I told her that she probably wouldn't see much more improvement. I definitely take cranial nerve VII for granted.