Poster #183 - Reparations for Eugenics: Sterilization in California’s Jails and Prisons

• In Event: ASC Poster Session I

Abstract

Beginning in the early twentieth century, almost 20,000 people have been forcibly sterilized in California’s state-run facilities. While the practice of forced sterilization was said to have essentially ended when eugenics laws were repealed in California in 1979, a state audit found in 2014 that “at least 794 people in state prisons underwent various medical procedures that ‘could have resulted in sterilization’ between 2005 and 2013.” Furthermore, there is evidence that these sterilizing procedures are still happening even today under specific circumstances, including in California’s state jails and prisons. This poster illustrates the current state of sterilizations in California’s correctional facilities, as well as avenues of reparation for survivors.

Author

• Rachel Wallace, University of California, Berkeley School of Law