California reparations for forced sterilizations include prisoners
By Judy Greenspan posted on July 21, 2021
Bay Area Rally for better health care for prisoners.
Oakland, Calif.
It’s not often that incarcerated people win victories under capitalism. Incarcerated women, and transgender and gender-nonconforming people did just that.
When California’s Governor Gavin Newsom approved the new state budget July 12, it included reparations for people who were forcibly or involuntarily sterilized between 1909 and 1979. The language in the bill specifically included incarcerated people in women’s state prisons after 1979. California is the first state in the U.S. to offer reparations to people who were sterilized while in prison. (Press Release by California Coalition of Women Prisoners, July 13)