A state program to compensate people who were sterilized in California prisons has rejected most applications for compensation, according to an investigation by Cayla Mihalovich, with support from the Fund. For 18 months, Mihalovich has been investigating the flawed implementation of the reparations program. Her latest story, published in Cal Matters and KQED and republished in other outlets, includes the story of Geynna Buffington, who tried to get pregnant when she was released from prison at the age of 40 – only to learn that she had been sterilized in prison a decade earlier in what she was told was a procedure to treat an abnormal pap smear. Buffington applied for the $35,000 reparations under the new state law and was rejected four separate times before she was finally approved this month, Mihalovich reported. The compensation program was supposed to end this month but, given the flawed implementation, it has been extended until January 2026, Mihalovich reported.
Grantee uncovers poor follow-through for program that was supposed to compensate people who were sterilized in prison
