Area jails juggle inmate hygiene, risks
Women deemed suicidal are often denied clothing, feminine products
When authorities booked Chelsea Schehr into the Waller County Jail last month, they determined during an intake interview that the 24-yearold needed to be on suicide watch. So they took away her clothes — a standard precaution — and issued her a thick blanket.
This complicated a personal matter: Schehr was on her period, and Waller County does not provide tampons. They do not let inmates deemed at risk of harming themselves wear underwear, either, 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.
Although the state cleared Waller County’s handling of Schehr, the issue of hygiene and nudity for suicidal inmates is under review.
Advocates say Schehr’s treatment was inadequate and perhaps indicative of officials’ general disrespect for women’s needs.
“It’s wrongheaded,” said Diana Claitor of the Texas Jail Project. “I can’t imagine that being standard operating procedure.”
Waller County is not alone in how it handles female hygiene and nudity. Hundreds of jails in Texas have wide discretion on how to manage thousands of inmates who may be suicidal or struggling with mental health issues.
An informal Houston 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.
Still, Schehr’s case eventually 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.
‘Completely improper’
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.
Officials are also working to update procedures in Wharton County, where inmates on suicide watch have been denied clothing and covering.
For jailers, the issue centers on risk. 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. She had been arrested for an alleged traffic violation but was not flagged as a risk to herself.
The new form is meant to improve efforts at catching warning signs. More people are now flagged for suicide watch than in the past, the sheriff said.
Waller County Sheriff R. Glenn Smith said Schehr’s case was clear and based on proper protocol.
“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 later and also recommended she be watched.
Her attorney, Andy Taylor, however, called her treatment “completely improper,” saying that jailers made 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 John Abbatacola, with whom she’d had a son 14 months earlier. The couple argued, and Abbatacola called police. He believed she was suicidal; Schehr believed he was trying to frame her as an unfit parent.
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, but increasingly they have had to take on that role.
Varying alternatives
Counties diverge on what suicide watch entails. It might mean giving the inmate different clothing and placing him or her in an individual cell. Some counties, including Dallas, provide paper gowns, but problems with the gowns abound.
In Travis County, inmates requested several at a time for warmth. In Montgomery County, officials constantly replaced them because of sweat. Both counties decided to move away from using them.
Waller County inmates sometimes wet the gowns so they can form objects when they dry. In Wharton County, an inmate once used a gown to commit suicide. Now at-risk inmates there are housed naked.
“I wish there were better answers,” newly elected Sheriff Shannon Srubar said.
Alternatives do exist. A heavy-duty smock — an early version of which was designed by a former jail nurse in California — is widely used, though a sanitary belt made by the same company is not as popular.
Jailers are left to make do. Brazoria County offers toilet paper with a blanket. Montgomery County provides a blanket in some cases, though a spokesman said they would change it out for a fresh one.
Fort Bend and Travis counties provide thin underwear with a pad, worn under a smock. Travis County Sheriff ’s Office Capt. Sally Peña said providing nothing is not an option.
“It’s just inhumane, plain and simple,” she said.
In Harris County, clothing is only removed by a doctor’s order, but a woman without regular clothing would be allowed sanitary products, so long as she were on close watch, said spokesman Jason Spencer.
The Waller County sheriff says his office contacted a company about providing paper panties with pads for female inmates.
‘Has to be something better’
A recent walk through the cell that housed Schehr shows a basic, beige unit with a perfunctory shower, toilet and platform on which to sleep.
The floors felt sticky and an eerie image of a person was etched into a wall.
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.
To Schehr’s mother, the decisions at the jail worsened an already difficult situation.
“There is basic human need,” Colleen Schehr said. “There has to be something better.”