Feb. 21, 2018

Orange is the new Fad!

From The Novelist Portent by Johnny E. Mahaffey (author's profile)

Transcription

The Novelist Portent
Johnny E. Mahaffey
February 5, 2018

ORANGE IS THE NEW FAD!

Any day now, we will all have to turn in all of our clothes and trade out for orange. Orange with white stripes!

I figured this would eventually happen. There's just too many TV shows with prisoners in orange for it not to spread through the minds of lawmakers and prison administration. And the escape just last year, with the guy making it to Texas with $40,000 on him really drew some unwanted attention to SCDS's shortcomings. So, in orange we go.

That's what color the county had me in. My then-wife-now-ex-wife had even made a braided bracelet out of some of my outfit's spare threads. But those were different days—and we were both different people. It's another effect of incarceration: the loss of our loves.

The orange also serves to further dehumanize us.

But who cares? We have to look like the TV shows or we're not doing it right. TV runs America's lowly. You can see our current uniforms by looking back at posted photos of me in visitation with my dad. The tan uniforms are marked all over with SCDC... But, oh well. It doesn't matter. These tans are thin enough as they are, our pants are made out of the same material as the sheets. But we do have a pocket (one) on the front of our shirt. These new uniforms are paper thin and have no pockets, no sleeves, no collars...

No sleeves!

M

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