SAGINAW, MI — If orange is the new black, as the popular TV show title says, then black-and-white stripes are the new orange at the Saginaw County Jail.

The jail's all-orange jumpsuits increasingly are viewed as "cool," Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel says, prompting him to begin purchasing jumpsuits with horizontal black-and-white stripes for use inside the jail instead.

The choice was not arbitrary, the sheriff says.

Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel

"It's because as you see shows on television, like 'Orange Is The New Black,' some people think it's cool to look like an inmate of the Saginaw County Jail with wearing all-orange jumpsuits out at the mall or in public," Federspiel says, referring to the Netflix drama. "It's a concern because we do have our inmates out sometimes doing work in the public, and I don't want anyone to confuse them or have them walk away.

"We decided that the black-and-white stripes would be the best way to go because it signifies 'jail inmate,' and I don't see people out there wanting to wear black-and-white stripes."

Federspiel says he's trying to adapt to an apparent culture change.

"When the lines get blurred between the culture outside the jail and the culture within the jail," he says, "I have to do something to redefine those boundaries, because they've been blurred far too often in public culture."

Inmates wearing a mix of orange and black-and-white striped jumpsuits are lodged in a cell at the Saginaw County Jail.

The sheriff says the uniforms, for which his budget included funding, cost $11.73 per jumpsuit. They are the same material and the same cost as the orange ones the county has used for several years, and a jumpsuit lasts for about two to three years of wear, Federspiel says.

During the transition, some inmates continue to wear orange jumpsuits, and jail staff have used the different colors to differentiate inmates housed on different floors. Federspiel says he doesn't expect to complete the change until the end of the year.

Sheriffs in the past have used other colors, including black and white "many, many moons ago," Federspiel adds.

"It was time to make a change again," Federspiel says. "It's cyclical. And there will come a time in the future when I change back to another color or different attire."

The new colors serve as "just another aspect for how to provide better security for our deputies," Federspiel says.

"I don't want them to not be easy to spot," he says. "That's scary. With the amount of people — it's not all across the country, but it's here in Saginaw. I see a lot of people wearing all orange, and they think it's cool. And some people even put 'Property of the Saginaw County Jail' on the back of it. I've seen that. It's like, 'What are you doing? Really?'"

Many inmates are not a fan of their new jumpsuits, the sheriff says.

"They don't like it. They've been very verbal," he says. "A lot of them have said, 'We don't like wearing black-and-white stripes.' And my response is, 'Too bad. Don't come to jail.' If you come to dinner at my house and you don't like what I'm serving, don't come back. If you don't like the food, don't come back. If you don't like the clothes that I give you, don't come back. I didn't ask you to come wear this uniform."

Federspiel says that's "always my response."

"It's not to be crass," he says. "We're not trying to embarrass or shame them. It tells me something, though, when the inmates think that it's bad: It's probably good. We don't want them getting too comfortable, feeling like they're productive members of society, when actually when they're incarcerated, they're not."

The sheriff adds he does not "expect everybody to agree" with the change.

"Some people may not like it, some people may like it — that's the diverse community we live in," he says. "But it's what's in the best interest of the public, and that's what I have to look at."

— Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter @awhoag