Why did prisoners have to wear horizontal stripes on their uniforms? Was it supposed to represent the bars or something?

mend21

They made the prisoners standout so they could be easily identified from the guards. NOTE: The ensemble not only made prisoners easier to see, but it was symbolic of their shame. http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/03/21/political/ [Note and Link added -- Zb] Aug 09 00, 5:19 AM

zbeckabee

St. Petersburg Times, July 5, 2001 -- Stripes came into vogue in the early 19th century. The black and white bands were supposed to symbolize cell bars -- a scarlet letter for convicts. Just after the Civil War, all the inmates were wearing them. But by the early 1900s, people were thinking differently about prisons and punishment. In 1904, at the height of the Progressive era, New York's superintendent of prisons stopped making his inmates wear stripes, calling such suits a "badge of disgrace." Federal prisoners didn't wear stripes after 1914. Florida inmates wore striped pants through the mid 1930s. http://www.sptimes.com/News/070501/Floridian/Cellblock_chic.shtml Apr 06 08, 11:27 AM

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