Police Failing to Provide Tampons/Pads to Women Detainees

Well that makes a lot of sense!

Essentially what we're saying on this thread is that there's no justification for allowing a person to sit in their own blood. You're saying it's happening due to a lack of staff and I believe you. That doesn't justify it in any way.

Or alternatively they don't let a woman kill herself, with her being uncomfortable sitting in her own blood being the lesser of 2 evils

So rather than pay for enough staff to be available to deal with prisoners, they'd rather let a woman sit in her own blood and then pay for specialist cleaners to deal with the mess?

Yep

So rather than pay for enough staff to be available to deal with prisoners, they'd rather let a woman sit in her own blood and then pay for specialist cleaners to deal with the mess?

This doesn’t surprise me.

As a secondary teacher in a deprived area, myself and the other female members of staff have been supplying sanitary products for the girls in our care for years. Ofsted and the government bang on about poor attendance yet we could clearly see the monthly pattern for many of the girls. To the extent that when we looked at it on a spreadsheet the pattern made us gasp. Dramatic improvement since School offer them free in the toilets. Our HT actually tried to get the media involved in highlighting this but they weren’t interested despite the clear and dramatic improvement in our attendance rates. Oh and Ofsted insisted on recording it as being a direct consequence of improving quality of teaching rather than accept the reality. Despite the fact that we hadn’t changed how we taught.

Lloyd - this is a genuine question - is there no concern at all about blood with potential pathogens being spread around a cell?

Not really. Specialist cleaners are called out to deal with it. Same as with dirty protests

I really don't know why you think that risk of suicide has anything to do with this

It's got everything to do with this. Women are offered sanitary products, there's just not a good range

The example given in the OP of a female DP being refused. I was explaining why this would be.

Do you have any experience working with vulnerable women?

A shit tonne of working with criminal ones. Yourself?

Reinette That all makes sense, but surely there would be a similar bio-hazard risk from menstrual blood that was flowing freely, if not more likely to be got on any fabric available and launched in a similar manner?

I know several custody officers that work in 2 different police forces.
They do provide sanitary towels but not tampons due to the risk, albeit small, of toxic shock syndrome.

It must be confirmed my the nurse/doctor that they need one before being given a towel though as some 'clients' aren't necessarily calm and rational and have been known to use spent sanitary products, along with body solids/fluids, in dirty protests to attack/threaten officers. Blood can be extremely toxic and those in detention taking a used sanitary item and throwing it at officers in protest/anger is a serious bio-hazard.

Lloyd - this is a genuine question - is there no concern at all about blood with potential pathogens being spread around a cell?

Lloyd your idea that because they have decided to take all a woman's clothes and dress her in a paper suit, that a sanitary towel will be somehow risky or dangerous in her hands is the weakest idea I have ever heard. What's she going to do, throw it at them?

No she could try and ingest it. She could take the elastic from her underwear and try and create a ligature. The tampons she could use to try and block an airway.

How many other ideas have you heard in your role in HMPS/POLICE/Secure settings for this to be the weakest idea you've ever heard? I mean from your obvious years and years of experience for being accountable for other persons actions?

Lloyd are suicidal prisoners also denied toilet roll?

"I've seen people attempt it with the plastic vending machine cups (rip them, they can be quite sharp) so they were changed to polystyrene. Certain individuals then started trying to swallow them whole. Anything and everything can be used to attempt suicide. "

But it isn't a sharp plastic cup, it's a cotton wool wodge with some stick on it.

And if they can use anything then why is she allowed a paper suit? Paper wadded up and a sanitary towel are not very different. Unless you think the strip of adhesive has magical killing properties.

"I work in a large sized town which now has an average of 5 officers on."

Ah - you're a police officer?

These are the sort of people who come up with all sorts of cock and bull stories and swallow whatever the people in power tell them when atrocities are committed.

Honestly the idea that OF COURSE 100% the authorities were totally right in denying this woman any sanitary protection, there is no way whatsoever that it can have been anything other than absolutely the right thing to do, this blind "they can do no wrong" attitude is really scary.

You see it time and time again when the police get accused of stuff and then when it turns out that yes they did murder the guy it's all oh well they're stressed and somehow still manage to victim blame.

Holding the authorities to account is incredibly important unless you want a police state.

How does one commit suicide with a tampon, exactly?

I've seen people attempt it with the plastic vending machine cups (rip them, they can be quite sharp) so they were changed to polystyrene. Certain individuals then started trying to swallow them whole. Anything and everything can be used to attempt suicide.

Give her a pair of knickers and a pad and supervise her (if she's that much of a risk, surely she had to be supervised anyway?)

Great call. I work in a large sized town which now has an average of 5 officers on. Where are you finding the 2 female officers for the cell watch for the x amount of hours she is in custody?

It doesn't make sense whichever way you look at it, as surely the police don't want their cells with blood on them, and risk of contracting something as the woman has blood all over the place.

Lloyd your idea that because they have decided to take all a woman's clothes and dress her in a paper suit, that a sanitary towel will be somehow risky or dangerous in her hands is the weakest idea I have ever heard. What's she going to do, throw it at them?

Don't you think having her bleeding freely represents a bigger risk all around, both to her from a psychological POV and to them from potentially unsafe blood.

Some people will make any and all excuses for the authorities, pretty much whatever they do, it's this that leads to unaccountability when much much worse things happen.

• rénove the "would"!

Give her a tampon? Give her a pair of knickers and a pad and supervise her (if she's that much of a risk, surely she had to be supervised anyway?)

I don't think if I felt so bad that I'd be a self harm or suicide risk, that I'd feel less so would by feeling utterly humiliated.

What happens when women are sectioned? Are there better facilities for them then? (Think I know the answer to this, hoping I'm wrong).

How does one commit suicide with a tampon, exactly?

Ok Lecroissant. What would you do?

WTF Lloyd?? So because she was a suicide risk, it was acceptable to just let her bleed everywhere and sit in her own mess?

Sherry Ralph, the organisation's chief operating officer, said that custody suites "typically only have one absorbency of tampon and towel available"

We'll it's a custody block, not a shop. What exactly is she expecting?

"One woman, it says, had her clothes removed and was dressed in a paper suit. Despite her having her period, her underwear had been removed and she was refused any sanitary protection

With very good reason I'd imagine. Every single event and interaction is recorded on the custody log, and the rationale for the decision made. If she was that much of a self harm/suicide risk it's fairly obvious why she wasn't provided with this.