You learn something new every day, right? But sometimes, what you learn is fist-shakingly, soul-crushingly outrageous.
Case in point: were you aware that between 2006 and 2010, at least 150 female inmates were coerced into being sterilized without proper state approvals? Well, folks, now you do. Because that totally happened.
The good news? A new bill—California's Prison Sterilization Prohibition bill—aims to close the necessary loopholes to protect inmates against future abuses; it was written with the help of some of the abused inmates and seeks to beef up staff training so officials are aware of inmates' legal rights, while requiring inmates to have access to a second medical opinion, psychological consultation and medical follow-ups.
Basically, it wants to treat female inmates like human beings instead of a deranged sub-special monster poised to fill the world with her inevitably deranged offspring. Which, let's face it, is the not-so-lurking mentality behind the abuse.
As an added little sprinkle of outrage, consider that a doctor behind many of the sterilizations, James Heinrich, has been sued for malpractice several times, with women claiming he injured them and their infants during bungled surgeries. And these cases happened before he was hired by the prison system to treat female patients. W-o-w.
And no, this isn't the only example of female abuse behind bars. This year, at least five state bills have been introduced to combat another horrifying legal reality: women are shackled up in chains while giving birth, purportedly to prevent fleeing. Some 33 states across the country currently allow for this practice.
Listen, there are legit reasons to be concerned about the offspring of female inmates—1.3 million American children have incarcerated mothers and children of those in prison are five to six times more likely to end up in prison.) The problem is how this issue is being handled: rather than addressing the systemic problems that drive mothers into the prison system in the first place—or helping women get their lives together to become productive mamas of society—prison officials have taken the easiest, most craven course possible by taking matters, quite literally, into their own hands...rights of women be damned.
This is to say nothing, of course, of the ethical issues tied up in socioeconomically, racially-motivated eugenics, which is a whole other sickening can of worms. Bottom line: Women in prison are people. It's time they were treated as such. [Soapbox removed]
Image: Shasta_Lin_Photography/ThinkStock
