The New Eugenics: Black Hyper-Incarceration and Human Abatement

Oleson, James C.

doi:10.3390/socsci5040066

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 55 publications

(65 reference statements)

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“…A eugenics style policy might be one explanation. A prison sentence of 25 years to life would generally mean that if the person is released, he would no longer be biologically able to have children" [45]. Viewing eugenics as an intentional feature of prisons and sentencing puts into stark relief the racial bias in sentencing and the over-policing of Black and Brown communities.…”

Section: Right To Have Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling Reproduction and Disrupting Family Formation: California Women’s Prisons and the Violent Legacy of Eugenics

Avila,

James

2024

Societies

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Prisons in the United States serve as a site and embodiment of gendered and racialized state violence. The US incarcerates more people than any other nation in both numbers and per capita rates. Individuals incarcerated in women’s prisons are 10% of the total prison population, yet women’s prisons remain understudied, and the violence that occurs in women’s facilities is rampant, widespread, and operates in particular racialized and gendered ways. This paper centers the forced sterilizations that occurred in California state prisons over the last two decades. We consider how reproduction and the nuclear family have served as a primary site of racial capitalism and eugenic ideology. While eugenic policies were popularized and promoted across the US and globally in the 20th century, the violent ideas underlying eugenic ideology have been a constant presence throughout US history. The height of the eugenics era is marked by the forcible sterilization of institutionalized ‘deviant’ bodies. While discussions of eugenics often center these programs, the reach of eugenic policies extends far beyond surgical interventions. We utilize a reproductive justice lens to argue that the hierarchical, racialized social stratification necessary for the existence of prisons constructs and sustains the ‘deviant’ bodies and families that predicate eugenic logic, policies, and practices. In this conceptual paper, we draw from ongoing research to argue that prisons, as institutions and as a product of racial capitalism, perpetuate the ongoing violent legacy of eugenics and name abolition as a central component of the fight to end reproductive oppression.

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Section: Right To Have Childrenmentioning

confidence: 99%