Forced Sterilizations in California Prisons

California Prisons: A History of Forced Sterilization for Inmates
In 1994, legal limits were placed on sterilization practices in California prisons. However, between 2006 and 2010, 150 illegal female sterilizations took place. The importance of this issue is underscored by California’s history of forced sterilizations stretching over most of the twentieth century. It appears that inmates continue to possess very little leverage to resist doctor’s sterilization recommendations while in the prison environment. Some inmates may have been pressured into sterilizing while partly sedated on a surgical table.

Recent complaints reveal a lack of consistency in prison sterilization practices. Many of the recent cases amount to forced sterilization. Inmates whom prison officials considered to be at high risk of returning to prison may be specifically targeted. Other factors, such as race and ethnicity, may be implicated and are being looked into by auditors as part of each sterilized inmate’s demographics.

Subdued Reactions to Inmates’ Reproductive Rights Violations
Doctors’ responses to some of these allegations may be characterized as subdued at best. Prison medical professionals have stated that pragmatically the cost of sterilizations is less than the government’s expenditures on welfare. Other officials have opined that many poverty stricken pregnant inmates are known to commit crimes, so that they could return back to prisons to take advantage of prison healthcare system, which includes sterilizations.

Failures of the California Prison System
The pseudo-logical arguments justifying forced sterilizations are not compelling. In fact, these arguments can be seen as nothing more than an inadequate attempt to rationalize the repeated failures of the California state prison health care system. Widely regarded for its egregious shortcomings, a U.S. District Judge recently placed the entire state prison health care system into receivership, ruling that it constitutes a cruel and unusual punishment in and of itself. Note that “receivership” represents the last resort remedy for failed governmental agencies that exhibit outright noncompliance with constitutional mandates.