Stanley-Eric-Captive-Genders-Trans-Embodiment-and-Prison-Industrial-Complex

Out of Compliance“to me this is about making us wear tighter clothes, which is again goingback to what their picture is of rehabilitated females.”Potatoes, like several others, hoarded the baseball shirts. They hadthem stashed in different places. Eventually, they were told, the baseballshirts will be confiscated. But Potatoes has stated that she will never wearthe more feminine shirts. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll just go to jail.’ They said, ‘Well,you can’t go to jail forever,’ and I said, ‘Yes, I can.’ I would hit a staff andgo to jail before I would walk around in a round-collared shirt.”The comfort issue around clothing is especially acute when it comesto underwear. Terri mentioned, “I always wore boxers. I feel more comfortable,and that was one of those issues, why can’t we have them? I don’tunderstand why we can’t have them here.” People in women’s prisonerswear panties, not boxer shorts, the under garments of choice for manyaggressives and masculine-identified individuals. But, boxer shorts are consideredcontraband in women’s prisons. Some people cut the legs off theirthermal pants, and wear them as underwear, but for much of the year itis too hot to wear those. Boxer shorts are not available from vendor boxes(unless you are housed at a men’s facility), but prisoners do get them. Thereare a few ways of getting this contraband item. Prison Industry Authority(PIA) makes inmate clothing, including boxer shorts. Prisoners have founda way to get boxers out of there, though not directly from stealing themsince they are searched when they return to their units after work. As Bubareported, “[In] PIA laundry, we wash men’s clothes, some people be gettingsome boxers out of there and they sell them on the main yard.” Insanementioned another way of getting boxer shorts. “You find a hook-up andget you some clothes made, you know. They have PIA fabric and theymake boxers for me, so you can get, if they have a pattern. There’s sometalented people here, that’s why they can make you boxers out of a sheet.”Mike does feel constrained from getting black market boxers, sinceyou can get into trouble for having contraband items. “I have a few pairs,but you try not to get caught. I would be removed from my job becauseI work where they make them, so….” But to CJ, an aggressive, “I knowit’s contraband, but I cannot do panties.” Cookie questions the wholepremise of keeping boxer shorts from people who feel more comfortablewearing them. He said,Boxers don’t make me act more aggressive. Boxers don’t make me breakmore rules, they don’t make me want to use more drugs, they don’tmake me want to do anything but feel more comfortable when walking197