Earlier this year, I toured a Midwest courthouse with a deputy from the courthouse law enforcement staff as the initial part of a needs assessment. We began by examining the secure route that deputies use to accompany prisoners from the courthouse cellblock to the courtrooms. During this part of the tour, the deputy commented that the security staff locker room was too small to accommodate current needs. He further noted that an adjacent vacant room could be used as a convenient expansion space. I suggested that we both stop to look at the vacant room after examining the secure route to see if it could, in fact, be used for this purpose.
When we opened the door to the room and turned on the lights, I was somewhat surprised to see that the fairly large “vacant” room was a filled with racks of clothes. It looked as though we had left the courthouse and stepped into a discount clothing store.
When I asked the deputy about the contents of the room, perhaps with a bias toward a future locker room expansion, he responded, “Oh, it’s just unused clothing that the court keeps around.” Still, as the day progressed and I moved on to other areas of the courthouse, I thought that it might be wise to further inquire about the clothes-filled room.
The Defendants Dressing Room
I got my answer in the public defender’s office. The attorney I spoke with explained the use of the room and made it quite clear that it was not vacant and was not available for use as a security staff locker room. The attorney explained that the court had decided that criminal defendants attending a preliminary hearing or appearing in a criminal proceeding, whether they were represented by a private attorney or a public defender, should not be attired in an orange jumpsuit.
The orange jumpsuit shouted out “criminal” and created an image of the defendant that might not lead to a fair and impartial decision by a judge, and particularly by a more impressionable jury. To avoid this possibility, the court had stocked the room with a wide variety of male and female clothing for defendants to wear during their initial hearing or trial.
In the past, I have visited several courts that fully adhered to the concept of no orange jumpsuits in court. However, I will admit that I have never before seen a room this large stocked with clothes for the use of defendants. Perhaps it could be further improved by the addition of a secure changing room with provisions for law enforcement supervision and a small facility for cleaning the clothes after being worn. Nevertheless, I thought that it was a commendable idea that fully supported the concept of “blind justice” that is a hallmark of our American legal system.
