Bring back stripes: Jail isn’t normally the place one would expect to find fashion statements being made, but inmates of Kane County Adult Corrections in Geneva were saying a little more with their uniforms than, “I’m incarcerated.”
Apparently some inmates were choosing their togs based on color, not on size, as they were supposed to be doing when they received fresh clothes twice each week.
The green, brown, red, blue, light blue and orange colors had been used by the jail as a means to differentiate size, but some of the 340 inmates found another significance to the colors: They chose them based on gang affiliation.
“We had inmates who would force themselves into larger or smaller sizes,” said Gene Buldak, director of corrections.
But jail officials are phasing out the rainbow look, replacing any worn uniforms with standard orange. Until all have been replaced, colors are being standardized in each section of the jail.
It is jail officials’ way of making their own statement.
