Last year, the Center for Investigative Reporting exposed to the country what California-based prisoners and advocates had known for years: women in the state’s prisons were being sterilized against their will. Now, the AP reports:

State auditors found 39 cases where female state prison inmates may not have understood they were submitting to medical procedures that would leave them sterile, according to a report released Thursday that recommended authorities investigate the doctors and hospitals involved.

State law prohibits inmates from elective sterilizations as methods of birth control. However, prison officials allow sterilizations in cases deemed medically necessary.