SACRAMENTO
California launches program to compensate survivors of state-sponsored sterilization
Continuing the state’s leadership to redress historical injustices, Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced the launch of California’s new program to compensate survivors of state-sponsored sterilization, created as part of the 2021-22 state budget package.
As of this week, survivors of state-sponsored sterilization can apply for compensation through California’s Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Compensation Program, which is being administered by the California Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB).
“California is committed to confronting this dark chapter in the state’s past and addressing the impacts of this shameful history still being felt by Californians today,” said Newsom. “While we can never fully make amends for what they’ve endured, the state will do all it can to ensure survivors of wrongful sterilization receive compensation.”
The state is providing $4.5 million to be split evenly among all eligible individuals who apply, in addition to $2 million for administration and outreach for the program and $1 million to establish markers or plaques at designated sites that acknowledge the wrongful sterilization of thousands of vulnerable people. It is estimated that at least 600 survivors of forced sterilization are still alive today and eligible for compensation.
From 1909 through 1979, under state eugenics laws, thousands of people who lived in California state-run hospitals, homes and institutions were sterilized. Those laws were repealed in 1979. However, it was later found that forced or coerced sterilizations continued to be performed on people in custody at state prisons or other correctional facilities under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) proposed the program in AB 1007. The budget provided legislative language establishing the forced sterilization compensation program and appropriated $7.5 million to fund the program.
Survivors are encouraged to visit www.victims.ca.gov/fiscp or reach out to CalVCB at 800-777-9229 or fiscp@victims.ca.gov to obtain an application. They can also send a letter to P.O. Box 591, Sacramento, CA 95812-0591. Applications will be accepted from now through Dec. 31, 2023. Applying is completely confidential. Compensation paid to the claimant or claimant’s trust will not impact a survivor’s Medicaid or Social Security status or benefits and will not be considered income for state tax purposes or for community property, child support, restitution or a money judgment.
For more information on the program, please visit victims.ca.gov/fiscp.
—Submitted
Crime, drug crisis stay in spotlight
Other issues certain to keep dominating California discourse in 2022: rising crime rates and the drug overdose epidemic. Los Angeles closed out 2021 with its highest rate of gun violence in 15 years, notching 392 homicides as of Dec. 29 — the city’s highest total since 2007 and a more than 50% increase from 2019, according to the Los Angeles Times. Oakland, meanwhile, finished the year with 134 homicides, its largest tally since 2006, and has already recorded its first murder of 2022, the Mercury News reports. Despite Newsom pledging to spend more on crime-fighting efforts and other prominent California Democrats ramping up their tough-on-crime rhetoric, some shaken residents are taking matters into their own hands: After four men robbed him at gunpoint, longtime Oakland resident Trevor Lawrence bought a firearm of his own.
- Lawrence: “When you’ve been through that level of trauma, I feel that’s the only sense of security I have.”
Another jaw-dropping statistic: San Francisco police in 2021 seized 56 pounds of fentanyl from the Tenderloin neighborhood alone — a 500% increase from the amount seized there in 2020. The figure, which police officials described as “unprecedented,” was released a few days after San Francisco supervisors approved Mayor London Breed’s proposal to declare a state of emergency in the Tenderloin to ramp up the city’s response to overdose deaths. “This is a status quo that we absolutely need to challenge and disrupt with everything we have,” Supervisor Matt Haney — who’s running for a state Assembly seat — told the San Francisco Chronicle.
—Hoeven, CALMatters
Other Capitol updates
COVID has also made an appearance just one day into the legislative session. Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita said Monday that he tested positive for the virus on Sunday and would stay home in accordance with state public health guidelines. Wilk, who said he is fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, added that he had planned to receive his booster shot this week and urged unvaccinated Californians to get the shot. Also in quarantine: Democratic Assemblymember Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles, whose two children tested positive for COVID.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers started to introduce a flurry of new bills on Monday. Some key examples:
- State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Glendale Democrat, unveiled a proposal to fund school districts based on annual enrollment, rather than average daily attendance. Proponents say such a move would help schools — many of which are facing dire budget situations partly due to declining attendance — achieve financial stability. But opponents say it could make it harder to hold schools accountable for chronic absenteeism rates, which soared amid the pandemic as kids stopped showing up for class.
- State Sen. Josh Newman, a Fullerton Democrat, proposed a constitutional amendment that would reform California’s recall process for statewide elected officials. Instead of a two-part ballot that includes replacement candidates, Californians would simply be asked if they want to recall the official in question. A recalled governor would then be replaced by the lieutenant governor, a recalled constitutional officer by a gubernatorial appointee and a recalled state lawmaker by the winner of a separate special election.
- State Sen. Dave Cortese, a Campbell Democrat, announced a bill — inspired by the fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust” — to regulate the entertainment industry’s use of firearms and live ammunition.
- Meanwhile, a controversial bill that would eliminate loitering laws for sex workers, traffickers and potential buyers — which state lawmakers passed last year but haven’t yet sent to Newsom — could soon head to the governor’s desk.
—Hoeven, CALMatters
