Contemporary Eugenics, Social Engineering, and the Criminal Justice System

• In Event: The Excesses of Incarceration

Abstract

Policies that authorized State-led sterilizations of incarcerated individuals were practiced extensively throughout California in the early- to mid-20th century. Though such policies have been formally repealed, reports have shown that the practice of inmate sterilization has occurred in California as recently as 2010. Anecdotal evidence and investigations by social justice organizations suggest that over 100 female inmates were coerced into tubal ligations by prison medical personnel on the premise that women prisoners’ reproductive choices were a drain on the State welfare system. Furthermore, these sterilizations were in violation of State policy that was intended to prevent tragedies that resulted from California’s eugenics practices, which led to the sterilization of approximately 20,000 people during the 20th century. In light of the recent prison-based sterilizations in California, this paper explores the ways in which the contemporary prison industrial complex is used to 1) exert social control over the reproductive rights of women prisoners and to 2) enforce controversial social policies in a setting that tends to be hidden from the public gaze.

Authors

• Sarah Brightman, Fayetteville State University

• Emily Lenning, Fayetteville State University