Things I See At Work

I've mentioned before that I work at a county jail. I'm a Control Room Operator (CRO) assigned to a general population pod.

We have mostly young men, but a few older men are housed here too. White, Black, Hispanic; some gang members, a lot not; a lot of tattoos to be sure; long hair, short hair, no hair. In other words, a lot of diversity. Some are here on their first charges, others have lengthy criminal records. Some will serve their time here; others will move on to the prison system.

One thing I've noticed is something I've also seen on the street. The "fashion" of wearing their pants down around their hips, leaving their undershorts showing. It's mostly the younger men, and transcends the races.

Maybe it's my age. After all, I have entered that time of my life called "middle age", and I am a white female. Even though I've worked for this agency in various positions for almost 25 years, I've lived a rather sheltered, perhaps naive, life. I don't have kids so I haven't been exposed to what's popular with kids, except when I worked in Juvenile. And even then, I didn't interact much with the boys.

So I don't understand what's up with this particular fashion. Especially when I know how it started (apparently, in prisons, certain males wore their pants like this to be more accessible to other male inmates who, uh, well, make use of the availability). It's hard to believe that some of these guys, in here or on the street, would follow a fashion with this reputation. I've recently noticed that the pants seem to be moving downward. Some are wearing their pants at thigh level. Thank God for elastic waistbands!

I have to laugh when I see some of these guys trying to move up and down the staircase with the crotch of their pants down around their knees. Or trying to play basketball with their pants down at their knees and tripping on the long pant legs. Some of them now are wearing two pairs of undershorts, one pair at the waist and the other somewhere between the first pair of undershorts and the outer pants. Some are cuffing their pant legs so the pants are capri length. Some have one leg cuffed high on the leg (capri length) and the other cuffed at the ankle. What's with that?

Then there is the habit of putting their hands in their pants. They seem to be holding onto something, but I'm not sure whether it's their pants, underpants, or "you-know-what". Maybe it's just colder in the pods than it is in the control room.

I know it's the "gansta" and thug lifestyle. But really. Where are the fashion police when you need them??