NEW YORK — Books on Silicon Valley, the criminal justice system and the 2015 massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina are among the finalists for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize.

The $10,000 award, announced Tuesday by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, is named for the late author and investigative journalist.

The nominees are Jennifer Berry Hawes’ “Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness,” Emily Bazelon’s “Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration,” Jodie Adams Kirshner’s “Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises,” Alex Kotlowitz’s “An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago” and Margaret O’Mara’s “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.”

The forced sterilizations at 15 public hospitals in South Africa between 2002 and 2005 have sparked public outrage. Some of the hospitals are in some of the country’s largest cities such as Johannesburg and Durban.

“When I asked the nurse what the forms were for, the nurse responded by saying: ’You HIV people don’t ask questions when you make babies. Why are you asking questions now? You must be closed up because you HIV people like making babies and it just annoys us,” the report quotes one complainant as saying.

The commission said its investigation took time because of challenges including some hospital staffers who tried to hide documents or refused to cooperate.

It will refer its report to the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which has a mandate to act against health care practitioners.

The World Health Organization says South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world with more than 7 million people living with the illness. Some 19% of the people around the world with HIV live in the country, which also has 15% of new infections.

The commission has recommended that further research be done into how widespread the practice of forced sterilization of women living with HIV might be in South Africa.