News Channel 5 in Tennessee’s Chris Conte has a troubling story of General Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield’s new practice of offering up reduced sentences for inmates who agree to having a vasectomy or birth control implant.
On May 15, 2017 General Sessions Judge Sam Benningfield signed a standing order that allows inmates to receive 30 days credit toward jail time if they undergo a birth control procedure.
Women who volunteer to participate in the program are given a free Nexplanon implant in their arm, the implant helps prevent pregnancies for up to four years. Men who volunteer to participate are given a vasectomy, free of charge, by the Tennessee Department of Health.
According to Conte, 70 inmates have agreed to these stipulations.
“I hope to encourage them to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out, to not to be burdened with children. This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves,” Judge Benningfield said in an interview.
Okaaaaaay. I don’t always have the best sentence structure in my writing but let me write this one out for you. By being potentially sterilized I hope to be able to take personal responsibility and make something of myself. Ugh, failed again. The ACLU responded to this story:
"Offering a so-called 'choice' between jail time and coerced contraception or sterilization is unconstitutional. Such a choice violates the fundamental constitutional right to reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity by interfering with the intimate decision of whether and when to have a child, imposing an intrusive medical procedure on individuals who are not in a position to reject it. Judges play an important role in our community – overseeing individuals’ childbearing capacity should not be part of that role."
That’s a very articulate and civilized way of saying “stop trying to sterilize people.”