As a German, I find this highly disturbing, given my country's history. Maybe I am just a bit naive (probably), but I had not expected to read about something like this happening in a ____ing democracy that claims <i>some</i> regard for human rights.
"As part of the investigation prompted by Kelli* speaking out, the Center for Investigative found California State audit & prison records showed nearly 1400 sterilization procedures occurred btwn 1997-2013. FOIA requests to other states confirmed: only 6 <prisons> have banned sterilizations."<p>*Kelli Dillon - was incarcerated and subject to one of these illegal? sterilizations.<p>*prisons - added for clarity
What do prisons even have to gain from sterilizing inmates? It's not like they're in an environment where they could be expected to become pregnant. It seems like cruelty for cruelty's sake.
Kamala Harris was AJ of California from 2011 to 2017.<p>Kamala Harris was DA of SF from 2004 to 2011.<p>She is now Vice President.<p>This is where she was sending people to. She either knew what was happening and ignored it, or was so bad at her job that she didn't know what was happening in prisons.
That shit's been going on the US for over a century - and not just in prisons.<p>It started in Indiana on Mar 9, 1907. In 1909 WA and CA followed. (California sterilized over 20,000 ... 1/3 of the total.) Before the Eugenics fad ended, 30 states had sterilization laws. That crap was supposed to end in 1974 with Public Law No. 60. But no doubt there are still 'public-minded crusaders' who circumvent the law.<p><a href="https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Eugenics-and-the-Nazis-the-California-2549771.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Eugenics-and-the-Nazi...</a><p>"Hitler proudly told his comrades just how closely he followed the progress of the American eugenics movement.... Leon Whitney, executive secretary of the American Eugenics Society, declared of Nazism, 'While we were pussy-footing around ... the Germans were calling a spade a spade.'<p>Edit: In 1927 The US Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell@ (274 U.S. 200) decided that 'compulsory sterilization of the unfit' does not violate due process. That decision has not been reversed.