Это происходит потому что screen хочет терминал. ЧТобы он не хотел терминал есть две опции:

 -m   causes screen  to  ignore  the  $STY  environment  variable.  With
        "screen  -m"  creation  of  a  new session is enforced, regardless
        whether screen is called from within  another  screen  session  or
        not.  This  flag has a special meaning in connection with the `-d'
        option:

   -d -m   Start screen in "detached" mode. This creates a new session but
           doesn't  attach  to  it.  This  is  useful  for  system startup
           scripts.

Я использую обычно -d -m.