Leavenworth ? You may have heard of FUBU, Sean John or Phat Farm clothing companies, but now there’s a new line of hip-hop clothing in on the block — Brak Outt.

With a name like that, where do you think it comes from?

If you guessed a correctional facility, you’re right.

If you think the name refers to a prison escape, you’re wrong.

Oh, it is a clever play on words, said Warden Dave McKune at the Lansing Correctional Facility. But the primary message the inmate entrepreneurs want to send to youthful buyers is to “break out of old attitudes, break out of the way to prison, break out of your prison, break out of being in prison, the whole process.”

And he believes the smart-looking basketball shirts, shorts and pants, T-shirts, baseball jerseys and other items of urban streetwear will send that message to teenagers a lot stronger than he could lecturing to a high school class.

McKune said he was “pumped up” about the new venture from the time inmates came to him with the idea more than a year ago.

“In a nutshell, (I was excited about it because) it was by the inmates, they came up with it, they created it, they designed it, and it was such a positive, positive image,” he said.

James Anderson was one of the initial “idea men” behind the clothing line. He urges people to understand the company’s mission statement — “The Brak Outt urban apparel line is the creation of inmates whose goal is to turn a bad choice in life into a positive impact on today’s youth.”

Rapper Essex Sims is seen onstage during a filming of a video at Lansing Correctional Facility in Leavenworth or a new line of hip-hop clothing created by inmates called Brak Outt. The venture is intended persuade youths there is a better way than prison. Sims wrote, arranged and produced the rap song, Brak

Dream come true

The men involved in the project say they want to convey to youngsters that “there is no glory in prison, that having served time is not a status symbol, and that wearing the label of ex-convict does not make you a man or woman.”

The six men Anderson calls the core group have spent many long hours to make their dream a reality.

“They do it all, the design, the production work, the marketing,” said Alonzo Jamison, a former Kansas University basketball player most remembered for leading the Jayhawks into the 1991 Final Four with his career high game against Arkansas.

Jamison, now a Kansas City businessman, said he was asked to help with the marketing on the outside. He comes into the prison periodically to work with the men on the logistics — things like getting the clothing line into stores and the best ways to let people know what it’s all about.

“These guys are in here for a reason, but they’re trying to do positive things,” Jamison said.

Last month, the marketing tempo stepped up several notches with the filming of a video Jamison will use as a marketing tool. Though the final version was expected to last five or six minutes, the filming took considerably longer.

Alan Penrose, LCF’s media production director, is a hard taskmaster. “One more time,” became a familiar refrain as he filmed segments over and over.

Penrose, who has worked for several television stations, moved constantly around the auditorium in the medium security unit, camera in hand, seeking just the right angle, just the right sound.

Available in K.C.

Jamison said they’re marketing toward medium to small urban stores, “locally first, trying to get the name out there, so people will know what we’re about.”

Right now, the line will go into stores in the Kansas City metro area and in St. Louis.

Not all the details have been worked out for the business, McKune said, because it’s a new venture for the Kansas Department of Corrections.

“We’re taking baby steps, before we can start walking and running,” he said. “But the plan is to market nationwide. … that’s not just for the clothing itself but also the positive mental attitude.”

The core group, besides Anderson, includes Kohler Jeffries, L.A. Woods, Bill Jewell, Kenny Guth and Anthony Stallings.

Each has his particular area of expertise.

The group worked with Essex Sims, a member of a rap group the prison administration approved some years ago, to come up with the crux of the message. Sims wrote the lyrics to the song, “Brak Outt,” which buyers will hear on a mini CD that will come along with the hang tag with each piece of clothing. Both the CD and hang tag explain their motivation — to persuade youngsters there is a better way.

While the rap song includes some of Sims’ personal ideas about a new way of thinking and living, “it wasn’t all my concept of what Brak Outt was,” he said. “I got input from a lot of the guys.”

The other rappers — Ronald Edwards, Duereal Campbell, Antwain Whiteside, Dwayne Germany and James Muldrow — helped with the video, to include modeling the hip urbanwear.

“We’ve done some positive stuff about staying away from crime, gangs and drugs, things of that nature,” Edwards said. “That’s what the whole concept is about, breaking out of those behaviors.”

He believes some young listeners will realize these are “real guys telling me the straight message.”

Whether it reaches “two, three, 10 or 1,000 kids,” McKune said, “it’s worth it.”