A REBELS bikie gang member has been charged after allegedly yelling abuse at police officers in Mount Isa as the State Government looks to ramp up controversial crime gang laws by dressing jailed bikies in pink jumpsuits.

Police and Community Safety Minister Jack Dempsey is considering a plan to force bikie inmates to wear fluoro pink prison uniforms.



He has been inspired by a controversial US sheriff who makes Arizona inmates don bright pink outfits as part of a hardline stance on crime and punishment.



It comes after a 51-year-old Rebels bikie gang member was arrested after allegedly yelling abuse at police officers conducting patrols.



The Parkside man was charged with drunk and disorderly and entering and remaining in a licensed premises when wearing a prohibited item.



He has been refused bail and is due to appear in the Mount Isa Magistrates Court on October 21.



The Government last week introduced Australia's toughest anti-bikie laws, including powers to crush motorcycles and lock up criminal bikies for years in dedicated high-security prison units.



Mr Dempsey now wants to go even further by making bikies the "guinea pigs" for new fluoro-coloured prison uniforms.



"The Newman Government recently announced a raft of measures, including visitor restrictions, cell time and television bans, which will be imposed on members and associates of criminal gangs when they're in prison," he said yesterday.



"On top of these measures, I have asked Queensland Corrective Services to investigate changing the colour of the prison uniform.



"We will start with members and associates of criminal gangs and will look at rolling it out to other inmates over time."



Queensland prisoners currently wear two-tone green and khaki tops with denim jeans, a uniform slammed two years ago by then-shadow corrective services minister Bleijie as "camouflage-like" and providing the "perfect cover" for escapes.



"You should be able to distinguish between an average 'Joe Blow' walking down the street and a prisoner," he said at the time.



The Government has been keen to change the uniforms, introduced by the former Bligh administration after a TAFE fashion student design competition, to make prisoners stand out and to shame them even more. Most US prisoners wear orange or yellow jumpsuits, while violent offenders wear red and white striped uniforms.



Mr Dempsey said he had ordered Corrective Services to look at the American penal system for inspiration for the planned new uniform.



He said this included Arizona's notorious Maricopa County Jail, where the man who describes himself as "America's toughest sheriff', Joe Arpaio, forces inmates to dress in pink.



Bikies may even be the only inmates forced to wear pink uniforms.

Originally published as Jailed bikies in the pink