BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1135|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 1135
Author: Jackson (D), et al.
Amended: 8/11/14
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 9-0, 4/2/14
AYES: Hernandez, Anderson, Beall, De Le�n, DeSaulnier, Evans,
Monning, Nielsen, Wolk
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/29/14
AYES: Hancock, Anderson, Knight, Liu, Mitchell, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: De Le�n
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 5/23/14
AYES: De Le�n, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
SENATE FLOOR : 36-0, 5/27/14
AYES: Anderson, Beall, Berryhill, Block, Cannella, Corbett,
Correa, De Le�n, DeSaulnier, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Knight, Lara,
Leno, Lieu, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nielsen, Padilla,
Pavley, Roth, Steinberg, Torres, Vidak, Walters, Wolk, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Calderon, Liu, Wright, Yee
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 8/18/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Inmates: sterilization
SOURCE : Justice Now
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DIGEST : This bill prohibits sterilization for the purpose of
birth control of an individual under the control of the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), as
specified. Requires CDCR to publish data on its Internet Web
site related to the number of sterilizations performed, as
specified.
Assembly Amendments add to the means under which an inmate under
the control of CDCR is prohibited from being sterilized, clarify
the exceptions for allowing sterilization, and revise the
reporting requirements.
ANALYSIS : Existing statutory law:
1.Prohibits the use in prisons of any cruel, corporal or unusual
punishment or to inflict any treatment or allow any lack of
care that would injure or impair the health of the prisoner,
inmate or person confined.
2.Prohibits an order for a particular medical treatment by a
physician employed by the CDCR from being modified or canceled
by any employee of CDCR without the approval of the chief
medical officer of the institution or the physician in
attendance, except to protect the safety and security of the
institution, as specified.
Existing regulations:
1.Limit the provision of medical services for inmates of CDCR to
only those services that are medically necessary.
2.Define "medically necessary," for purposes of medical care
provided to incarcerated persons, as health care services that
are determined by the attending physician to be reasonable and
necessary to protect life, prevent significant illness or
disability, or alleviate severe pain, and are supported by
health outcome data as being effective medical care.
3.Define "significant illness or disability," for purposes of
medical care provided to incarcerated persons, as any medical
condition that causes or may cause, if left untreated, a
severe limitation of function or ability to perform the daily
activities of life or that may cause premature death.
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4.Exclude certain medical treatment for incarcerated persons,
including surgery that is not medically necessary, which
specifically includes, but is not limited to, vasectomy and
tubal ligation.
5.Permit treatment of excluded conditions in cases where the
incarcerated person's attending physician prescribes the
treatment, and the service is approved by the medical
authorization review committee.
6.Require the decision of the medical authorization review
committee, when determining whether to allow treatment of an
excluded condition, to base the decision on:
A. Available health and dental care outcome data supporting
the effectiveness of the services; and,
B. Other factors, including, but not limited to,
co-existing medical problems, acuity, length of the
incarcerated person's sentence, availability of the
service, and cost.
This bill:
1.Prohibits sterilization for the purpose of birth control,
including, but not limited to, during labor and delivery, of
an individual under the control of CDCR or a county and
imprisoned in the state prison or a reentry facility,
community correctional facility, county jail, or any other
institution in which an individual is involuntarily confined
or detained under a civil or criminal statute.
2.Prohibits sterilization of an individual under the control of
CDCR or a county and imprisoned in the state prison or a
reentry facility, community correctional facility, county
jail, or any other institution in which an individual is
involuntarily confined or detained under a civil or criminal
statute, through tubal ligation, hysterectomy, oophorectomy,
salpingectomy, or any other means rendering an individual
permanently incapable of reproducing, except if:
A. The procedure is required for the immediate preservation
of the individual's life in an emergency medical situation;
or,
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B. The sterilization procedure is medically necessary, as
determined by contemporary standards of evidence-based
medicine to treat a diagnosed condition, and all of the
following requirements are satisfied:
1) Less invasive measures to address the medical need
are non-existent, are refused by the individual, or are
first attempted and deemed unsuccessful by the
individual, in consultation with his/her medical
provider;
2) A second physician independent of, and not employed
by, but authorized to provide services to individuals in
the custody of, and to receive payment for those services
from, the department or county department overseeing the
confinement of the individual conducts an in-person
consultation with the individual and confirms the need
for a medical intervention resulting in sterilization to
address the medical need; and,
3) Patient consent is obtained after the individual is
made aware of the full and permanent impact the procedure
will have on his or her reproductive capacity, that
future medical treatment while under the control of the
department or county will not be withheld should the
individual refuse consent to the procedure, and the side
effects of the procedure.
1.Requires, if a sterilization procedure is performed pursuant
to a) or b) above, pre-sterilization and post-sterilization
psychological consultation and medical follow up, including
providing relevant hormone therapy to address surgical
menopause, to be made available to the individual sterilized
while under the control of CDCR or the county.
2.Requires CDCR to publish an annual report on its Internet Web
site, data related to the number of sterilizations performed,
disaggregated by race, age, medical justification, and method
of sterilization, including, but not limited to, hysterectomy
and oophorectomy. Specifies that each county jail or other
institution of confinement is required, if a sterilization
procedure is performed on one or more individuals under its
control, to annually submit to the Board of State and
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Community Corrections data related to the number of
sterilizations performed, disaggregated by race, age, medical
justification, and method of sterilization. Requires the
Board of State and Community Corrections to annually publish
this data on its Internet Web site.
3.Requires CDCR and all county jails or other institutions of
confinement to provide notification to all individuals under
their custody and to all employees who are involved in
providing health care services of their rights and
responsibilities under these provisions.
4.Entitles an employee of CDCR or of a county jail or other
institution of confinement who reports the sterilization of an
individual performed in violation of these provisions to the
protection available under existing law related to retaliation
and whistleblower protections.
Background
On July 7, 2013, the Sacramento Bee reported that female
inmates, in the custody of CDCR, were sterilized without
approval.
Doctors under contract with CDCR sterilized nearly 150
female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state
approvals, the Center for Investigative Reporting has
found.
At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of
prison rules during those five years - and there are
perhaps 100 more dating back to the late 1990s, according
to state documents and interviews.
From 1997 to 2010, the state paid doctors $147,460 to
perform the procedure, according to a database of
contracted medical services for state prisoners.
The women were signed up for the surgery while they were
pregnant and housed at either the California Institution
for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for Women in
Chowchilla, which is now a men's prison.
Former inmates and prisoner advocates maintain that prison
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medical staff coerced the women, targeting those deemed
likely to return to prison in the future.
(Female Inmates Sterilized without Approval, Corey G. Johnson,
Sacramento Bee, July 7, 2013,
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/07/5549696/female-inmates-sterilize
d-in-california.html.)
In response to this report, on August 13, 2013, the Senate
Public Safety Committee held an informational hearing regarding
female sterilization in California prisons. The hearing
included representatives from CDCR, experts from Justice Now,
and the Federal Receiver.
Prior Legislation
SB 1079 (Rubio, 2012) would have codified existing regulations
limiting medical services for CDCR inmates to only those
services which are medically necessary, excluding treatment for
sexual dysfunction or infertility, gender reassignment surgery,
and weight reduction surgery. The bill failed passage in the
Senate Public Safety Committee.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
Minor and absorbable state costs; CDCR indicates this bill
aligns with their current practice.
Potential, likely minor, state-reimbursable mandate costs to
offer additional services and follow specified procedures
related to sterilization, to notify incarcerated individuals
and employees, and to publish reports.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/18/14)
Justice Now (source)
All of Us or None
ACLU
Berkeley Law Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice
Black And Pink, San Diego
CA Correctional Health Care Services
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CA Partnership to End Domestic Violence
California Catholic Conference, Inc.
Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Critical Resistance
Friends Committee on Legislation
Legal Services for Women Prisoners with Children
National Asian Pacific Islander Women's Forum
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California,
Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
The Women's Foundation
Women Fight Back
Women With a Vision
Women's Health Specialists
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/18/14)
Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Justice Now states that sterilization
of an individual for birth control purposes in the prison
environment mimics the long-since discredited coercive
sterilization patterns of women of color and women living in
poverty, e.g. the sterilization of hundreds of Mexican-American
women at USC-Los Angeles, mass sterilization of women in Puerto
Rico, Black women in the U.S. South, and Native women during the
20th century. According to Justice Now, the time for California
to actively address its shameful eugenic legacy is long overdue.
All Of Us Or None and Legal Services for Prisoners with
Children write that these medical practices are unethical, and
advising unnecessary surgeries using misinformation, asking for
women's consent during labor, childbirth, or during a C-section,
and pushing women to have surgeries they expressly opposed is a
complete breach of the legal right to informed consent. Planned
Parenthood Affiliates of California states that while all women
should be able to make autonomous decisions about their
reproductive future, the coercive nature of the prison system
raises the question of whether true consent can ever be
achieved. The ACLU of California writes that California, a
state with enlightened reproductive health policies, has simply
failed to establish procedures that allow women to obtain
reproductive health care while protecting their rights in the
coercive prison environment and this bill takes an important
step to prevent further sterilization abuse.
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ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Taxpayers for Improving Public
Safety believes this legislation creates the assumption that a
specific class of individuals, i.e., prison inmates, lack the
intelligence to make decisions about their rights as it relates
to "reproductive choice" simply because they are in custody.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 8/18/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Muratsuchi, Nazarian,
Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. P�rez, V.
Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron,
Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gomez, Mullin, Vacancy
JL:nl 8/18/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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