If Rockingham County Jail, Virginia, mug shots look weird at first glance, they look even more bizarre upon closer inspection. The correctional facility is one of maybe two in the country to use strange-looking smocks for photographing new arrests. Someone give an inmate some liberty--from looking like they're at Supercuts.
Arrests in Pima County Jail, Arizona, also get a smock for their mug shot photo op -- though Pima County claims the reason for inmates being photographed in the blue smocks is to provide a more "uniform" look. Essentially, the idea is that cops or people can flip through mug shots quickly, without being distracted by clothing or anything aside from the head up.
Pima County jail in Tucson has been using the blue smocks in mug shots for over 15 years, though the look doesn't always appear to be so "uniform": The smock that covers the chest and upper body sometimes appears like the inmate's been wrapped like a mummy, while other shots tend to look like a really bad high school photo. For many of the Pima mug shots, it's questionable how the smock inclusion isn't more distracting than none at all.
The Arizona jail says the blue smock also (supposedly) has a second purpose: The smock is supposed to be an aid and help in line-ups, to catch that criminal. The idea is that, when photos are shown to someone, the smock resembles a "blue shirt" instead of making it look like someone's in jail.
That's the theory anyway.
Who knows what genius came up with that one. If people believe the bad smock is a "blue shirt", they're obviously not the right candidates for choosing pictures from a line-up -- with such a serious visual impairment occurring.
It seems you'd want to avoid being the one picked from any Pima County line-up.
But even despite its blue smocks, the Arizona correctional facility's got nothing on Rockingham County Jail in Harrisonburg: It seems someone provided the Virginia jail a color palette to choose from -- and the jail chose red. Actually, Rockingham County Jail chose red smocks with a black neck line. Maybe the jail thought red was more festive. Whatever the reason for the red smock choice, the "blue shirt" theory certainly won't be working for Rockingham -- that's for sure.
So Rockingham inmates get to look like they're stuck at a Supercuts, on the verge of receiving a hair cut. Maybe the jail got a discount -- available only on red smocks -- from a beauty supply.
The smock oddity may be the least thing plaguing Rockingham County inmates. The irony probably hasn't been lost on those behind bars: The Virginia jail is located on Liberty Street.