Toilet

,

Clean bodies

,

Respect the right to clean bodies

Reality

Personal hygiene can be a challenge in places of detention (PoD), especially when there’s overcrowding. Stop and think for a minute: just how horrible must it be to have to live in a perpetually smelly body, surrounded by other even more smelly bodies?

Rule

1. Prisoners shall be required to keep their persons clean, and to this end they shall be provided with water and with such toilet articles as are necessary for health and cleanliness.
2. In order that prisoners may maintain a good appearance compatible with their self-respect, facilities shall be provided for the proper care of the hair and beard, and men shall be able to shave regularly.
NMR 18

Response

The construction and maintenance of water piping is outside of our control, although - when washing water is not coming through - we do advocate for plumbing systems to be repaired. But routinely, there is much that we can do about so-called ‘toilet articles’, which is another term for toiletries.…

Respect

  • Document: we put up posters about NMR 18 and the health benefits of good personal hygiene, and we code patients’ medical notes if they have suffered as a result of non-compliance with NMR 18.

  • Demonstrate: we distribute soap, towels, toothbrushes & toothpaste, combs, shampoo for those with long hair, and disposable razors. We provide laundry soap for the washing of towels, and sometimes launder them ourselves. Long-handed toothbrushes have to be risk assessed, as they can be used to make shivs. And the use of a razor is assessed on a case-by-case basis with officials, as they too are potentially lethal.

  • Discuss: we talk about why a good level of personal hygiene is important to human wellbeing. And we praise officials who make their own efforts to improve detainees’ personal hygiene.

…he [Jesus] poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet,
drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him… “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.”
John 13:5-14