If getting 30 days shaved off your sentence is such an appealing offer that an optional bargain involving sterilization is considered coercion, surely it's <i>putting people in prison</i> that's inhumane here?
Some women have a severe adverse reaction to "hormonal" birth control. These products actually use hormone analogues that disrupt the steroid pathways.<p>This diagram shows how cholesterol is turned into the steroids: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid#/media/File:Steroidogenesis.svg" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid#/media/File:Steroidoge...</a><p>As best I can figure, my friend had her first psychotic break after 9 months of chemical castration with time released medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo Provera). This drug is a very good mimic of Progesterone USP (what the body makes for itself), but the body cannot transform it into the steroids downstream from Progesterone USP.<p>Most of the other endocrine disruptors used as birth control aren't nearly as bad as Provera, but all have potential for adverse reactions.<p>edit: wording
"A Tennessee judge has rescinded his controversial program that sought to encourage drug-dependent female and male inmates to cut their jail time by voluntarily agreeing to undergo birth control procedures.<p>White County General Sessions Court Judge Sam Benningfield of Sparta filed the order on Wednesday, a day before two state lawmakers asked Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery to render a legal opinion on the controversial program's constitutionality."<p><a href="http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2017/jul/27/tn-lawmakers-seek-state-attorney-general-opinion-judges-inmate-sterilization--freedom-program/440575/" rel="nofollow">http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2017/j...</a>
This practice has been stopped. (Edit)<p>Source: <a href="http://wkrn.com/2017/07/27/white-county-judge-stops-trading-jail-time-for-vasectomies/" rel="nofollow">http://wkrn.com/2017/07/27/white-county-judge-stops-trading-...</a>
There's been sterilization of "welfare moms" in the recent past in the US.[1]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/sterilized-for-being-poor" rel="nofollow">http://www.thedailybeast.com/sterilized-for-being-poor</a>
I am failing to find it, but this same basic story was posted in recent weeks. Perhaps just as well. A tldr of my comments there: Eh, some inmates might feel "You are going to reduce my sentence AND give me free birth control? What's the catch?"<p>As this article says, he may be going about it the wrong way, but he probably is trying to do something good. The Deep South (where I was born and raised) seems to generally be even worse than the rest of America about certain things. I can see him being willing to take the blame so some young woman can stop being a baby factory and blame it on him, thereby getting relatives and church members off her back.
So, where are the Conservatives deploring this government involvement in health care?<p>Or, viewed from another angle, <i>this</i> is the future of health care in America.<p>(For those who are unaware, note that <i>other</i> aspects of health care in U.S. incarceration are often poor or outright unavailable. As a simple exercise, just say to yourself "private prison" -- which many jurisdictions have increasingly moved to -- and imagine the corresponding pressure for cost savings (i.e. profit).<p>But, "spay and neuter" them? [Yes, an intentionally harsh and polemic phrasing on my part.] Sure, we can pay for that.)
If we support "cash for clunkers" why not support "pay people to be sterilized?" I don't mean "pay poor people and criminals" -- I mean, open up the program to any person who volunteers.
I suggest reading about <a href="http://www.projectprevention.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.projectprevention.org</a> for a less coercive version of the same concept.