
FORCED STERILIZATION VS COERCED STERILIZATION. There is no difference.
A judge in White County, Tennessee has signed an order that knocks thirty days off jail sentences if the incarcerated person agrees to be sterilized. The rationale as stated by Judge Sam Benningfield is that “I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, to not be burdened with children.” On a cursory reading, it sounds like the judge’s thinking is rational and that he is looking out for the best interests of inmates going forward in life right? Except for the fact the White County Jail is looking at decertification for overcrowding and Judge Bennington’s sterilization policy offer leaves no difference between force and coercion.
Eugenics is insidious and stands as a crime against humanity. It takes away the single most fundamental right human beings have which is control over what happens to their bodies via choice. The true evil of eugenics is that it SOUNDS rational and the best peddlers of its insanity can make it sound compassionate and even noble. The truth remains that eugenics based philosophy targets the poor, minorities, the disabled, those living with mental illness and anyone else who does it fit into an artificially and biased definition of normal. Canada had eugenics laws on the books in Alberta until 1972. The last forced recorded sterilization in the United States was 1981. We are not talking ancient history and now White County has brought eugenics back into the light of day with this insane jail house program that Judge Bennington says is about responsibility and opportunity the very same argument used by eugenicists since it began.
White County Jail in Sparta Tennessee is currently facing decertification due to overcrowding. Sparta Live reports that the jail built to house 165 inmates is currently housing 227 with a number of inmates living in recreation areas without access to bathrooms. In other words, the jail is a terrible place to be. I would like to sit here and say “hell no, I wouldn’t do it! You can take my freedom but you can never tie up my balls!” It’s an easy thing to say on a warm Thursday night at 9:20 p.m. tapping this out on my Samsung S6. I have no idea how I’d react to less thirty day offer from a stinking, loud overcrowded jail if all it meant was a snip. I have a feeling that I would do anything to get out of that situation in as little time as possible and that is the rub in this whole goddamned mess. Offering someone a 30 day reprieve from life inside White County Jail is not fathomable to anyone living outside the jail. I know people who were incarcerated, and to stay sane they talked about how to focus on the “now” of things. Jail does not allow for anything future oriented. It is impossible to imagine life 2 or 3 years down the road therefore I don’t believe a rational decision regarding your choices can be made when you’re living on a floor in horribly overcrowded conditions. And when someone says you can out 30 days early if you just get an implant or a snip. That is exactly the kind of offer that is cruel, inhumane and the very soul of coercion.
Judge Benningfield can say what he wants in whatever language he wants to say it, but the fact is that the American Prison Indudtrial Complex is set up in a way that maliciously targets racial minorities, the poor, and the disadvantaged these are the very same “problem” people that eugenics was created to solve. It is beyond any sense of human decency or compassion to view Judge Bennington’s sterilization offer as anything less than criminal. At its most benign this program is a coercive tool to force people to give up their most sacred birthright as a human being. At it’s worst, this program is yet another installment of genocidal actions being taken against people who have been deemed unfit to fully and freely participate in a democracy.
Adam Dunbar
