Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized at least 148 female inmates between 2006 and 2010 with required state approval, the Center for Investigative Reporting said,
There are perhaps 100 more dating back to the late 1990s, according to state documents and interviews.
Between 1997 and 2010, California paid doctors $147,460 to perform the procedure. The women were signed up for the surgery while they were pregnant, and were housed either at the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, which is currently a men's prison.
The news of sterilization hearkens back to allegations nearly a half-century ago when it was a commonplace practice done on prisoners, the mentally ill and the poor. State lawmakers officially banned such practices in 1979, CIR reported.
A top medical manager at Valley State Prison between 2005 and 2008 characterized the surgeries as an empowerment issue for female inmates. Since 1994, the procedure has required approval from top medical officials in Sacramento on a case-by-case basis.
The U.S. was the first country to concertedly undertake compulsory sterilization programs for the purpose of eugenics. The heads of the program were avid believers in eugenics and frequently argued for their program. It was shut down due to ethical problems, news reports said.
Most sterilization laws could be divided into three main categories of motivations: eugenic (concerned with heredity), therapeutic (part of an even-then obscure medical theory that sterilization would lead to vitality) and orpunitive (as a punishment for criminals).
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