Jails struggle with hygiene for some women inmates

When authorities booked Chelsea Schehr into the Waller County Jail last month, they determined during an intake interview that the 24-year-old needed to be on suicide watch. So they took away her clothes, as standard precaution, and issued her a thick blanket.

This complicated a personal matter: Schehr was on her period. Waller County does not provide tampons. And they do not let inmates deemed at risk of harming themselves wear underwear, so she could not have a feminine hygiene pad.

Schehr, who maintains she was not suicidal, said one word described her 28-hour detention: Dehumanizing.

"It's just ridiculous," she said.

Schehr's story, fueled in part by the intense scrutiny facing Waller County since the widely reported suicide of Sandra Bland there in 2015, has drawn attention to an uncomfortable issue in many jails - balancing inmates' dignity with the need to keep them safe.

Hundreds of jails in Texas have wide discretion on how to handle personal hygiene and clothing for thousands of inmates who may be suicidal or struggling with mental health issues, and Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith said proper protocol was followed in jailing Schehr with no clothes or feminine supplies.

Still, her case ultimately could mean better conditions for other women detained in local jails. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards is formulating statewide recommendations on how counties should handle personal hygiene and clothing for suicidal inmates, and is considering making them mandatory, said Brandon Wood, the commission's executive director.

Waller County is not alone in how it handles female hygiene and nudity. An informal Chronicle survey of local jails found that some officials likely would respond as Waller County did, providing only a blanket and perhaps toilet paper. Others offer basic supplies that pose limited risk.

Advocates such as Diana Claitor of the Texas Jail Project, however, say Schehr's treatment was inadequate and perhaps indicative of officials' general disrespect for women's needs. Claitor called it unethical to deny such products in the name of safety.

"It's wrongheaded," Claitor said. "I can't imagine that being standard operating procedure."

Veda Brown, a retired professor in Waller County pushing for statewide change, agreed that the policy caused more harm than necessary. She wants others to remember that inmates are humans, not numbers.Even John Abbatacola, 27, the father of Schehr's child, who called police the day Schehr was arrested, said in a recent court hearing that he felt badly about what followed.

"I don't want anyone to experience something like that," he said.

Stripped of clothes and dignity

The state jail commission earlier this month found Waller County's treatment of Schehr appropriate, though they discussed ways for the county to provide menstruation products in the future.

The state is also working to update procedures in Wharton County, where inmates on suicide watch have been denied clothing or covering. And state officials plan to issue a memo on menstruation and suicide watch, Wood said.

For jailers, the issue centers on risk. First, they must determine if someone is suicidal, a designation that often arises during booking.

Waller County jailers now use a mental health screening form updated by the state in late 2015, months after Bland was found hanged in a cell. A state trooper had pulled her over days earlier for an alleged traffic violation, which escalated into a heated confrontation. But she was not flagged as a risk to herself. The commission found the jail did not comply with staff training and observation requirements.

The new form is meant to improve efforts at catching warning signs.

The sheriff said because of the new form, more people are being marked for suicide watch than in the past. But he said Schehr's case was clear.

"There were multiple indicators on her screening form that placed her on suicide watch," he said. A mental health official evaluated her about four hours after she was screened and also recommended she be watched.

Her attorney, Andy Taylor, however, said her treatment was "completely improper," because jailers were making decisions that should have been determined by medical staff.

"They're acting like doctors when they're not," he said.

Authorities arrested Schehr on April 22 on suspicion of assaulting Abbatacola, with whom she'd had a son 14 months earlier.

After an argument that day, Schehr had gone to lie down in a closet, according to court testimony. Schehr said she was upset, wanted to pray and put on a scarf; Abbatacola saw her behavior as suicidal.

Abbatacola testified that she attacked him when he took a photograph. She said she believed he wanted to frame her as an unfit parent. Abbatacola called police.

"Whatever happened after that was out of his control," said Candace Demary, Abbatacola's attorney in a current custody dispute.

Schehr's mother, Colleen Schehr, said no one should have been arrested that day. And she believes her daughter certainly should not have been declared unstable based on the assertions of a man with whom she had a troubled past.

"Who determines when these women are suicidal, and if they should be stripped of their clothes and their dignity?" she asked.

Jailers aren't mental health professionals, agreed Glenn Urbach, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for Greater Houston, though increasingly they are making decisions about mentally ill inmates.

The sheriff, however, said jail officials also rely on observations from arresting officers in determining whehther an inmate needs extra attention.

No one wants a case like Bland's to repeat.

Paper gowns and heavy smocks Counties diverge on what suicide watch entails. It might mean giving the inmate different clothing and him or her in an individual cell.

Some counties, including Dallas, provide paper gowns. Others, including Waller County, find those dangerous.

Problems with paper gowns abound. In Travis County, inmates requested several at a time for warmth. In Montgomery County, officials constantly replaced them due to sweat. Waller County inmates sometimes wet the gowns so they can form objects when they dried. All three counties have since decided to move away from using them.

In Wharton County, an inmate once used a paper gown to commit suicide. Now at-risk inmates there are housed naked.

"I wish there were better answers," newly elected Sheriff Shannon Srubar said.

But alternatives do exist. As a jail nurse in California, Lonna Speer felt certain people should not be left naked on what may be the worst day of their lives. In 1989, she launched a company to sell what she says was the first version of the product many now prefer: a heavy-duty smock. She also developed a blanket.

Items like these are now common. But the concept didn't solve the problem of menstruation. Speer's answer to that ­- a sanitary belt made of foam that breaks if twisted - has not been widely sought. It's imperfect even to Speer.

Jailers for now make do with what they feel appropriate. Waller County's standard of providing only a blanket is not unique.

Brazoria County offers toilet paper with the blanket. And Montgomery County provides a blanket in some cases, though a spokesman said they would change it out for a fresh one.

"The last thing that any jail or any law enforcement officer wants is for someone who was put in our custody to pass away," Montgomery County Sheriff's Office spokesman Scott Spencer said.

Schehr pleaded for underpants, sanitary napkins or tampons, her mother said.

The sheriff says his office has recently contacted a company about providing paper panties with pads for female inmates.

Other jails follow different procedure.

Fort Bend and Travis counties provide thin underwear with a pad, worn under a smock. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office Lt. Daniel Quam said he didn't want any woman to be able to say basic needs were not met.

Travis County Sheriff's Office Capt. Sally Peña said, "It's just inhumane, plain and simple."Brown, the professor, recently gave Waller County commissioners, all men, what she said was a "starter kit" - pink sacks with tampons, sanitary wipes and paper panties with a pad, which she said were used in Lubbock.

Some counties offer underwear with close supervision. In Harris County, clothing is only removed by a doctor's order, but a woman without regular clothingwould be allowed sanitary products, so long as she were on close watch, said spokesman Jason Spencer.

In Dallas County, a woman on suicide watch would be monitored constantly and given underwear and a pad. By comparison, state hospitals always allow inmates to wear clothes.Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne, meanwhile, tries to house the mentally ill with the general population, who help keep an eye out.

'There has to be something better'A recent walk through the cell where Schehr was housed shows a basic, beige unit with a perfunctory shower, toilet and platform on which to sleep.

The floors were sticky and an eerie image of a person was etched into a wall.

Waller County may soon build a new jail. But the cell for now has a window, with a covering for guards to open after they give a warning first to female inmates.

Such cells are not ideal, but they can help keep an inmate safe and isolated from the jail's bustle, said Kit Wright, a jail nurse in Brazos County who spoke as a jail health advocate.

Danger can be found anywhere: in underwear, a pad, even the smocks, she said.

"If someone is really wanting to harm themselves, they're going to find a way," she said. "And so we have to do everything we can to prevent that from happening."

Schehr remains in limbo. For now, the Waller County District Attorney's office has not decided whether to file formal charges against her, but a custody battle is ongoing over the child.

To Schehr's mother, the decisions made at the jail worsened an already difficult situation for her daughter.

"There is basic human need," Colleen Schehr said. "There has to be something better."