Made In The USA: Prison Blues

If you are part of "Black Twitter", "Socialist Twitter", or "Ultra-Liberal Twitter", the latter also known simply as "Twitter", you know that the United States is the world's leading jailer, incarcerating more men and women than any other country in the world. There are deplorable reasons for this --- the prison-industrial complex that has deep ties to elected officials, the failed "War On Drugs" --- and there are admirable reasons for this, like the fact that we don't stone people to death in the street for minor offenses the way they do in many Islamic countries.

It's a little-known fact that most people in non-supermax prisons have jobs, ranging from "porter", which is like a janitor, to database administrator for the prison education program, to make up a random example, of course. These jobs usually pay something on the order of twenty cents an hour. Most of the products of that work go right back into the prison; if you do time in Ohio, as an example, you'll be issued a set of "state boots" every year or so. Those "state boots" are suede chukkas made by prisoners and constructed almost entirely from materials harvested at Ohio penitentiaries. This closed economy keeps people busy and, in theory at least, cuts the costs of incarceration.

There are exceptions to this general rule of Third World pay and prison-oriented products, however, and the Eastern Oregon Correctional Facility is kinda-sorta one of them.

Inmates there can earn $100 a month or more making clothes and learning the skills involved in cutting, stitching, and sewing. As is the case elsewhere, much of the product stays in the penitentiary system, but some of it is sold via the Prison Blues brand. As fate would have it, I've been looking for a decent American-made denim jacket for some time. The last denim jacket I had was cut off my limp body back in 1988 after I was dragged a couple of hundred feet by a ten-wheel truck. In the years that followed, the denim jacket went decidedly downscale, being restricted mostly to proles and hicks and whatnot.

This is 2016, however, and if you want to participate in the hipster-motorcycle scene, a denim jacket is an important part of the look. Enter the Prison Blues denim work coat, available for slightly under fifty dollars. It's sewn from heavy, rugged fabric that is in no way related to the Cone Mills Selvedge you'd get in an LA-made Brave Star. There's a "Prison Blues" patch on the outside and the brass buttons have an image of a heavily-barred door. It appears to be hugely durable, but only time will tell.

The only downside of this jacket, as far as I can tell, is the semi-amusing "Prison Blues" branding. As with the infamous Isuzu VehiCROSS Ironman Edition, you should be prepared to be asked if you've been in prison. In fact, one could argue that you shouldn't even be wearing this thing if you haven't done time. As a former inmate of three different Catholic schools, however, I feel entirely justified in putting it on.

If you're uncomfortable with the branding, you can check this list of twenty-five American-made denim jackets. It's slightly outdated --- Lucky, RL Polo, and a few of the other major vendors have abandoned the idea of USA manufacturing --- but many of the links still work. So pick your jacket, get your patches ready, and I'll be seeing you at Escape to Hazzard County this year!