EDITORIAL: What a deal!

OPINION:

A judge in Tennessee has offered repeat offenders of minor crimes a deal: He’ll reduce their jail time if they submit to sterilization. Those who take the deal get 30 days off their sentences. If they agree to take a class on the dangers of doing drugs with children in the home, he’ll take off another two days of jail time.

This doesn’t sound exactly right to many Americans, who say it’s repeating abuses of a bygone time. Eugenics, the science of “improving the race” by selective breeding, was once embraced by the intellectual class in America as a means of, well, “improving the race.” The idea fell out of favor when the Nazis used a variation of eugenics to attempt to breed Hitler’s master race. But sterilization was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1927, and 32 states enacted laws enabling sterilization between 1907 and 1937. Many of these states have repealed these laws since.

California embraced sterilization five, six, even seven decades ago with far greater fervor than any other state, trying to weed out the “unfit” by making it impossible for the unfit to produce more of the unfit. Sons and daughters of immigrants with Spanish, Italian and Japanese surnames were the most likely to be sterilized, frequently with the approval of parents who were too poor to care for them and were pleased to be rid of the “burden.”

Judge Sam Benningfield’s offer is nothing like that. It’s all voluntary and he says he’s just trying to help those of habitual criminal mindset, whose sexual adventures are likely to be unplanned and happenstance, to “make something of themselves.” His offer is popular in the jailhouse. Since he issued his standing invitation in May, 32 women and 38 men have come forward to take it.

Women agree to an implant of a contraceptive hormone device called Nexplanon. Men agree to a vasectomy, a minor surgical procedure that blocks the transmission of sperm, which first became popular in the 1960s. The results are the same, no more children. The procedures are performed free by the Tennessee Department of Health.

Judge Benningfield says he thought “long and hard” about his idea and consulted authorities in the health field before concluding that his offer is a winner for all. “I hope to encourage [repeat offenders] to take personal responsibility and give them a chance, when they do get out of prison, to not be burdened with children,” he says. “This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves.”

The American Civil Liberties Union has raised objections. The ACLU says eliminating the means to procreate, even with the reward of early freedom, is unconstitutional. Others say it’s morally questionable and, well, downright creepy. But there’s no law against creepy, and if it were a lot of people in Hollywood would have been in jail a long time ago. Most of all, it’s voluntary, and nobody is compelled to do anything. But the courts must be wary of abuses.