A California prison has been making headlines as of late over the unlawful sterilization of its female inmates. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting as published by the Sacramento Bee, Doctors in contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has sterilized close to 150 female prisoners from 2006 to 2010 without the needed approval of state authorities.
The 148 inmates received tubal ligations, while state documents and interviews prove another 100 women received the same procedures in the late 90s. According to the report, the ligations were in violation to prison rules during those five years.
The women came from the California Institution for Women in Corona and the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla -- now a men's prison. Patients signed up for the procedure whil pregnant and incarcerated.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the database of contracted medical services for state prisoners noted that for more than a decade - 1997 to 2010 - the state paid the doctors $147,460 to perform the medical procedures.
Reports further noted that female inmates were forced to undergo ligation, with doctors having a keen eye for those who have returned or will likely return to serve time in jail again.
Former Valley State Prison inmate Crystal Nguyen says she has heard doctors tell female prisoners to undergo sterilization. Having worked in the prison infirmary in 2007, medical staff targeted those who have served multiple terms to agree to the procedure.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, that's not right,'" 28-year-old Nguyen told Sacramento Bee. "Do they think they're animals, and they don't want them to breed anymore?"
Another former inmate at Valley State, Christina Cordero, also said the prison's OB-GYN, Dr. James Heinrich, pressured him to undergo ligation.
"As soon as he found out that I had five kids, he suggested that I look into getting it done. The closer I got to my due date, the more he talked about it," the 34-year-old former inmate who had five children and was imprisoned for two years for auto theft. "He made me feel like a bad mother if I didn't do it."
Tubal ligation patients say they regret undergoing sterilization.
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