Posted on 09/03/2003 9:13:59 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Inmates can dress up for jail photos Wednesday September 03, 2003 PATERSON, N.J. (AP) Mug shots aren't the only photos relatives of inmates at the Passaic County Jail will get to see of their locked-up loved ones.
The jail is starting a program next month in which, for a fee, inmates can pose for photographs wearing a jacket and tie. The idea was suggested by inmate Israel Nales in July when Sheriff Jerry Speziale was touring the jail.
``I'm still a good-looking man for my age,'' Nales told the Herald News of West Paterson. ``But not in this,'' he said, pulling at his prison garb. ``I don't want my mother to see me like this.''
Since he approached the sheriff with his idea, Nales said he has talked to dozens of inmates who also want to pose.
``I think it's a good opportunity for a lot of guys here to let their families know that they are doing OK,'' he said.
Speziale said he agreed because his department stands to make as much as $50,000 a year by charging $5 to $10 per photo. Among the more than 1,700 inmates at the jail, he estimated that hundreds of them would be interested in a photo program, he estimated.
``It's just another innovative way to increase revenue,'' Speziale said.
Most state prisons have programs that allow inmates to have their photos taken with family members on visiting days, for $2 a photo, said Deirdre Fedkenheuer, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.
``But we don't provide any jackets or ties,'' she said. ``This is prison. The inmates are there in their khakis.''
Not everyone is wild about the idea. Thom Ammirato, a spokesman for the Bergen County Sheriff's Department, said providing jackets and ties to inmates in a photo program would be contrary to the idea of incarceration.
``One of the terms of being in jail is the stigma attached to being in jail,'' he said. ``If you are allowed to look like you are not in jail, I don't know how well that goes with the objective of deterring crime.''
He said providing such a program would allow inmates to deceive their loved ones.
``If you are in jail for a violent crime and you get your picture taken in a business suit, are people supposed to look at your photo and be proud of you?'' he asked.
Imagine my chagrin when it turned out to be true.
This is absolutely frickin' ridiculous. Apparently it has not dawned on some people these people are criminals and they were put in prison to be punished.
Well, that was the original intent of prisons anyway.
"Sure, we'll take a check, but I'll need to see a picture ID."
"Well, if you are sure you didn't already vote, I'll need to see a picture ID. Thank you, Mr. Epstein and, may I say, you speak Spanish like it was your native tongue."
"I don't know how a guy like that got so close to the Judge. All I know is that, if he passed here, he had an OK picture ID."
Clothes don't make the man. If you don't want your mama to see you in prison, you shouldn't have done the crime, you dolt.
What s Really Happening in Sheriff Joe Arpaio s Jail
IntellectualConservative.com ^ | March 25, 2002 | Michael Lockwood
...New summer fashions.
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