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In the same week that 30,000 California prisoners are estimated to be on hunger strike to protest their living conditions, an explosive new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting has found that nearly 150 women inmates were sterilized between 2006 and 2010 in this state.

The CIR found that in many cases women were possibly coerced under the guise of lowering their health risks, but, one of the main physicians performing the sterilizations justified himself saying that the medical cost of the procedures was low “compared to what you save in welfare paying for their unwanted children.”

Although the practice, considered illegal, has apparently ceased since 2010, the disturbing question remains, did the Golden State really revive its ugly history of eugenics?

GUEST: Corey Johnson, Reporter with the Center for Investigative Reporting, Cynthia Chandler, Co-Founder of Justice Now and Adjunct Professor at Golden Gate University School of Law

Click here to read Corey Johnson’s report.

For more on Cynthia Chandler’s work, visit www.jnow.org and www.curbprisonspending.org.