JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — A southern Indiana woman is filing a federal class action lawsuit claiming her Eighth Amendment right was violated in 2014 when she says she was forced to spend more than a day sitting in her own menstrual blood while jailed following a domestic dispute. 

Melissa Houglin, 36, says she was denied feminine hygiene products despite multiple requests while incarcerated in 2014 and claims in the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in New Albany on Tuesday morning, that members of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department violated her Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment.

“I had to sit in my own blood for over 36 hours …” Houglin said of her time in a holding cell in the jail between Aug. 11-15, 2014.

Along with punitive damages, Houglin is asking a court to prohibit the jail from continuing these practices.

“I just want to know that this isn’t going to happen to another female ever again,” she said at a press conference in Louisville on Tuesday afternoon.

Records show the jail did not purchase feminine hygiene products at the time of Houglin’s incarceration, and attorney Laura Landenwich said she’s received several calls from women who share experiences similar to her client’s.

Houglin is not alone in her complaint by women in jail about being denied access to menstrual pads or tampons.

In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a lawsuit against Muskegon County, Michigan on behalf of female inmates in a county jail, claiming that, among other things, the women were denied access to sanitary items like feminine hygiene products and that the conditions at the jail constituted a violation of the prisoner’s civil rights. 

According to the suit, plaintiff and former inmate Londora Kitchens said she was denied supplies to manage her period and was told by a guard she’d better not “bleed on the floor.” The Michigan case is still pending. 

A New York City Councilwoman also recently introduced a selection of bills that would make products like pads and tampons free and accessible in schools, homeless shelters and prisons in the city. 

Captain Scottie Maples, spokesman for the Clark County Sheriff’s Department, said the Clark County jail now purchases sanitary napkins and inmates are given feminine hygiene products when requested. When Houglin was incarcerated, the sheriff’s department was under different leadership. 

“I don’t know what it was like then,” Maples said.

Houglin was arrested Aug. 11, 2014, after a domestic dispute with her husband, she said, and placed in a holding cell, sometimes referred to as the “drunk tank.” The following morning, she began her period but wasn’t given any hygiene products.

“When I would try to bang on the door or try to get somebody’s attention, I was ignored the first time,” she said. “Several hours went by. I tried banging on the door and a couple of the other inmates tried banging on the door and I was told to shut up, sit down, get away from the window or they were going to put something up over the window.”

Inmates in the holding cell with her gave her a tampon and a towel to wrap around her body after she stripped off her soiled clothes. By the time a corrections officer gave Houglin a tampon, she had bled through her underwear, jean shorts and onto the floor where she slept, according to the lawsuit. She was not allowed to shower during that time.

“The smell and the conditions of the cell was horrific,” she said. “It was bad, and to have to sit for 36 hours and be put through this, I’m mentally distraught over it.”

After the initial 36 hours, an officer gave her a jumpsuit and a sanitary napkin. Because she was given no clean underwear, she had to adhere her pad to her soiled underwear. Eventually, she used up that napkin and bled onto her jumpsuit. During her four days in the holding cell, she was given four feminine hygiene products. Houglin appeared in court in a bloodied jumpsuit.

Landenwich called the conditions “unconstitutionally inhumane.”

“This kind of treatment of women in our society is unconscionable and unconstitutional,” Landenwich said.

Through public records requests, Landenwich discovered the jail only purchased 26 pairs of women’s undergarments between July 2012 and September 2014, despite holding an average of 80 women at a time.

No feminine hygiene products were purchased. She was told the jail relied on donations, though she was unable to find any record that reflected these donations existed.

“Our understanding is that there is actual no policy whatsoever despite the fact that they’re holding regularly 80 or more women a day,” Landewich said. “There is no policy to handle menstrual cycles. There’s no policy on how to handle undergarments. It’s completely left to the discretion of the officers that are on duty. Now if there’s not a policy, how are these officers going to respond when you get a request?”

The Clark County Sheriff’s Department now purchases and distributes sanitary napkins and women’s underwear, Maples said, though he wasn’t sure how many.

“I know we have an abundance of them,” he said.

Maples noted the change did not come from the lawsuit, which he had just heard about that day. He added the jail currently follows Indiana jail standards, which specifically mention providing female inmates with sanitary items.

The sheriff’s department has 21 days to respond to Houglin’s lawsuit.

Beilman writes for the Jeffersonville, Indiana News and Tribune.