CCWP has been privileged to work with survivors of forced sterilization in California prisons to win reparations for them. We advocated for several years with the California legislature for women sterilized while incarcerated to receive some form of financial reparations, though nothing could ever fully compensate them for the harm that was done. We celebrate the people who have already received their initial compensation award and continue our efforts to ensure that everyone will receive their award.
The California’s Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program included $1 million to be distributed across three state agencies to create memorials that mark the harm caused by forced sterilization. The process to develop the memorialization was led by CDCr, the same state prison system still incarcerating survivors of forced sterilization. The bill was written to require collaboration with survivors and advocates. However, from the start, survivors and advocates were pushed out of the process. Eventually, the state rewrote the contract to eliminate the requirements for community engagement.
Seeing the exclusion and re-traumatization caused by the lack of inclusion in the memorialization process, CCWP decided to find a different want to memorialize the harm and heal in community. To memorialize the reproductive oppression of prisons, the harm of the forced sterilizations, the victories and losses of the reparations program, CCWP created a series of quilts to honor the survivors and their struggle to defend their reproductive rights.
The first quilt, features squares made by CCWP members outside of prison, including formerly incarcerated people and advocates, often in partnership with friends and loved ones on the inside. Each square represents someone’s story or how people are processing and healing from the ongoing harm and reproductive oppression of prisons. The quilt was designed and created by Linda Evans, who gathered the squares and thoughtfully and beautifully brought them together as a cohesive story titled, Together We Rise, Together We Heal.
This quilt is meant to be a reminder of the harms that have occurred and a testament to the strength and healing that comes through community. Through sharing the quilt, and the stories it represents, we hope to ensure that such violations do not happen again and seek to bring awareness to the ongoing violence and harm in California state prisons.
The “Together We Rise, Together We Heal” quilt display honoring survivors of forced sterilizations is available to rent for events and exhibits throughout California.
Please fill out this form if you are interested in hosting the display.
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