Belly of the Beast

The pastoral farmlands surrounding the Central California Women’s Facility, the world’s largest women’s prison, help conceal the reproductive and human rights violations transpiring inside its walls. A young woman who was involuntarily sterilized at the age of 24 while incarcerated at the facility teams up with a human rights lawyer to stop these violations. Together they spearhead investigations that uncover a series of crimes, from inadequate access to healthcare to sexual assault to illegal sterilization—the latter largely perpetrated against the facility’s Black and Latinx populations. As doctors and prison officials contend that the procedures were in each person’s best interest and of an overall social benefit, activists and allies take to the courtroom to fight for reparations and some semblance of justice.