The Washington law applies to habitual criminals and sex offenders; it is a punitive measure which may be ordered by the court passing sentence on the offender, but has never been put in force. Sterilization is not a suitable method of punishment, and its value as a eugenic instrument is jeopardized by the interjection of the punitive motive.
California applied her law to all inmates (not voluntary) of state hospitals for the insane and the state home for the feeble-minded, and all recidivists in the state prisons. The motive is partly eugenic, partly therapeutic, partly punitive. It is reported3 that 635 operations have been performed under this law, which is administered by the state commission for the insane, the resident physician of any state prison, and the medical superintendent of any state institution for "fools and idiots." For several years California had the distinction of being the only state where sterilization was actually being performed in accordance with the law. The California measure applies to those serving life sentences—an unnecessary application. Although falling short of an ideal measure in some other particulars, it seems on the whole to be satisfactorily administered.
Connecticut's law provides that all inmates of state prisons and of the state hospitals at Middletown and Norwich may be sterilized if such action is recommended by a board of three surgeons, on eugenic or therapeutic grounds. It has been applied to a few insane persons (21, up to September, 1916).
Nevada has a purely punitive sterilization law applying to habitual criminals and sex offenders. The courts, which are authorized to apply it, have never done so.