Dallas County Jail

Clothing

Interview with Charles, m ray, Leon, Jean, Accountant, Hot attorney, Gene, Lil Will and Cam

JM: What types of clothes were most common?
Charles: male inmates where black and white stripped shirt and pants, women where green and red stripped I think. if your an escape risk you wear a bright orange jump suit.
m ray: the sh* they give you and sometimes you would have the same thing for weeks
Leon: Coveralls most were stained and torn up.
Jean: Issued jumpsuit, issued thong, issued panties, issued bra.
Accountant: In Irving they had blue jump suits, in Dallas, I was in a holding cell in my personal clothing.
Hot attorney: Pink boxers.
Gene: Over alls for the general population. Shirts, socks, pants, & flip flops for trustees.
Lil Will: jumpers or striped suits
Cam: Pink boxers and jumpers..you had to be real lucky to get a good one..now they were both jumpers and the shirt to and pants bottoms that are like the old jail clothing you would see in the movies with the black and white horizontal stripes..Most of the uniforms are dingy and torn and in some cases dont even fit..

JM: Did you have a set uniform? What did it look like?
Charles: Black and white striped shirt, pants with white boxers and socks.
m ray: yes in use to be a white fle crow jump suit than they changed it to a two pieace black and white stapid with dallas co jail on the back
Leon: See above.
Jean: Yeah - it was a white jumpsuit.
Accountant: "yes" dark blue, and ugly...........thankfully it was clean, because it was new.
Hot attorney: Torn jumpsuit.
Cam: shirt top and pants bottom..horizontal black and white stripes..

JM: Were there any assigned clothes in high demand that an inmate should look for when getting clothing assigned?
Charles: Many people would try and get extra boxers or socks, but if your cell gets shaken down, they will be taken.
m ray: yes to get the new ones
Leon: Just something that fits is sometimes a challenge to get.
Jean: No, the only thing you could get on commissary was a sports bra, and that was like $22. You could get Tampex - real life Tampex. That was pretty cool. The jail issues you Kotex - pads - no Tampex. And you wear a white jumpsuit! Some of that commissary stuff you have to have - Tampex, shampoo...Street shampoo is hard to come by. When you get there, and I forgot about this - when you get checked in, your family can bring you panties, sports bras, and socks. They just have to be clearly labeled, and they check them at the door. You get them three, four or five days later - whenever they get around to it. They can bring you shampoo. The shampoo just has to be clear - and they can only bring it once so you only get one shot. For bras and panties and stuff I would just throw mine away and have my boyfriend bring me more. You have to wash your own stuff. Laundry every week, but if you get a brand new jumper, you don't want to send it back to cleaning, because you'll get an old one back. We used to just wash our own. You can buy Tide off commissary and then just wash it in the tub.
Accountant: N/A
Cam: Clean uniforms were always in demand..I observed a lot of inmates get very angry with staff due to the fact that they were issued a trashy, dingy and stained torn uniform.

JM: Was the clothing different between men and women?
Charles: Men have back and white stripped, and i think women have green and white stripped.
m ray: different color
Leon: No.
Jean: Yeah, it was orange and white for the men. I think it had to do with their status.
Accountant: NO
Cam: No..All the same..