CINCINNATI - Many Ohio sheriffs are bringing back black-and-white striped jail uniforms to clearly identify inmates.

By year's end, up to 25 Ohio sheriffs are expected to join the retro fad in prison fashion.

Hamilton County has already begun switching nearly 1,900 inmates into two-piece suits with wide horizontal stripes.

Sometimes, inmates are teased during work details that expose them to the public in downtown Cincinnati. The prisoners say the heckling is mostly good-natured.

"I get a lot of 'What year is this?' Or people holler, 'Where's your ball and chain?' " Roger Flege, an 18-year-old serving six months, said.

"It doesn't bother me, though. I know I'm in jail and have got to be distinguished from other people. I guess most of them are really surprised to see a convict dressed like the Hamburglar in this day and age," he said, referring to a character from McDonald's ads.

Kara Gotsch, public policy coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, said sheriffs are humiliating inmates with the uniforms "because it's a good way to look like you are being tough on crime."

Hamilton County jail officials say the uniforms are not meant to humiliate prisoners. They say the style was chosen to replace light-blue uniforms resembling hospital scrubs.

Allen County Sheriff Dan Beck cited the need to avoid confusion with Lima city workers' orange coveralls when he adopted the retro look five years ago.

"We tried to come up with an identifier so people would know they were inmates at the county jail and not public service employees," Sheriff Beck said yesterday.

The black-and-white look has "done two things. Number 1, it's allowed the 20 or 30 people we have working in the community to be identified clearly as inmates at the county jail," Sheriff Beck said. "It also makes the public aware that some of the people that are incarcerated are actually giving something back to the community."

The sheriff said when he made the change, "some of the other sheriffs ribbed me about the striped uniforms. And now some of them are switching over."

The return of stripes is happening not only in Ohio.

In rural St. Mary's County, Maryland, prisoners were placed in stripes three years ago because their bright-orange uniforms were the same color as hunters' jackets. There were concerns about a mix-up. In South Dakota a jailer turned to black and white because local highway department employees started wearing high-visibility orange coveralls.

First Published July 23, 2002, 12:38 p.m.