美国国家公共电台 NPR New Jersey Banking On Shift From Bail Money To Risk Assessment

New Jersey¹ Banking² On Shift From Bail³ Money To Risk Assessment⁴

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

More than half of the people being held in U.S. jails have not been convicted of a crime. Many defendants⁶ are awaiting trial behind bars simply because they can't afford to make bail. Starting next month, New Jersey hopes to drastically reduce its reliance on bail money. As NPR's Joel Rose reports, activists⁷ in other states are watching to see how that works.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE⁸: Mustafa Willis has seen the bail process in New Jersey up close. Willis was arrested in Newark in 2010 for unlawful possession of a firearm. The charges were later dropped, but he spent three months in jail before his family could scrape together $3,000 to bail him out.

MUSTAFA WILLIS: When you feel like you don't have that kind of money or no way to get out, the only thing you're going to do is say I'll take probation⁹ so I can get home and get back to my job and get back to my family. That's the only thing because how the rules work, if you don't bail out, you're going to sit there.

ROSE: Willis' story is not unusual. In 2013, a study found that three-quarters of people in New Jersey county jails were waiting for their day in court. Forty percent could have walked out of jail except that they couldn't afford to make bail.

ROSEANNE SCOTTI: They sit in jail for months and sometimes for years. They lose jobs. They lose housing. They lose connections to families. They can lose their children.

ROSE: Roseanne Scotti is the director of the Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey, which helped fund that study.

SCOTTI: Most of these individuals are low-risk individuals who could be released pending¹⁰ trial. But because we are a money-based system and not a risk-based system, they sat there because they didn't have money.

ROSE: How much money are we talking?

SCOTTI: About 12 percent of the people who are in jail are there for less than $2,000. And that was something that shocked everyone, legislators, judges, people in the system and the public.

ROSE: Most reports about pretrial detention¹¹ just sit on the shelf. But this one prompted some serious soul-searching in New Jersey and not just from liberal activists. Here's Republican Governor Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor¹², signing the state's bail reform law in 2014.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Under these reforms, our justice system will be both more effective in protecting our communities from dangerous, violent, repeat offenders¹³ and fairer to those nonviolent offenders who do not deserve to sit in what has become the equivalent of debtor's prison because they can't afford to post the bail.

ROSE: New Jersey isn't the first place to move away from bail. The federal government did it years ago; so did Washington, D.C. A handful of other states have tried various reforms, but New Jersey's maybe the most extensive, according to Insha Rahman at the Vera Institute of Justice.

INSHA RAHMAN: It was really we're going to sort of from top to bottom clean house and start over with something that essentially¹⁴ looks pretty new. So it's sort of the great experiment.

ROSE: Here's how the experiment will work. Starting next month, judges in New Jersey will use what's called a risk assessment tool to help decide if a defendant⁵ is likely to flee or commit another crime. For high-risk defendants, judges can order them held without bail, like the federal system. On the other hand, judges are encouraged to release the majority of low-risk defendants without bail. Stuart Rabner is the chief justice of New Jersey.

STUART RABNER: What has been seen in other jurisdictions¹⁵ where this has been done is that the prison population has gone down. People are showing up in court, and the rate of crime while people are on release has actually gone down as well.

ROSE: In Washington, D.C., for example, the vast majority of defendants are released without bail. Almost 90 percent show up for court, but Washington's pretrial detention system is elaborate and expensive. Counties in New Jersey complain that they're being forced to hire more sheriffs and prosecutors¹⁶ without any extra money. Jeff Clayton directs the American Bail Coalition¹⁷, an industry trade group.

JEFF CLAYTON: We are simply sitting back and saying we told you in 2014 this would be expensive and difficult to implement¹⁸. And then the fundamental question of, you know, whatever fairness it is we're buying, is it worth it?

ROSE: But the new system seems a lot fairer to Mustafa Willis. He wound up owing thousands of dollars to a bail bondsman after his arrest in Newark.

WILLIS: I was in debt from this, and the case was still dismissed, and I still had to pay them for nothing, something that I didn't even have, like.

ROSE: There is one thing that reformers and the bail industry seem to agree on - if New Jersey's experiment goes well, other states will try to copy it. Joel Rose, NPR News, East Orange, N.J.

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

3 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

4 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

5 defendant   

n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的

参考例句：

• The judge rejected a bribe from the defendant's family.法官拒收被告家属的贿赂。
• The defendant was borne down by the weight of evidence.有力的证据使被告认输了。

6 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 probation   

n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期)

参考例句：

• The judge did not jail the young man,but put him on probation for a year.法官没有把那个年轻人关进监狱，而且将他缓刑察看一年。
• His salary was raised by 800 yuan after his probation.试用期满以后，他的工资增加了800元。

10 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

11 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

12 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

13 offenders   

n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物）

参考例句：

• Long prison sentences can be a very effective deterrent for offenders. 判处长期徒刑可对违法者起到强有力的威慑作用。
• Purposeful work is an important part of the regime for young offenders. 使从事有意义的劳动是管理少年犯的重要方法。

14 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

15 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

16 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

17 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

18 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。