美国国家公共电台 NPR From A Cell To A Home: Newly Released Inmates Matched With Welcoming Hosts

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

America imprisons¹ more people than any other nation. And for those who get released after a long sentence, re-entry can be tough, especially finding affordable², stable housing. Housing is often one of the biggest barriers to ex-inmates⁴ finding a decent job and getting their life back on track. Well, one group here in California is trying to change that with a first-of-its-kind program. You might call it Airbnb for the formerly⁵ incarcerated⁶. Here's NPR's Eric Westervelt.

JASON JONES: I'm bored to death. So if I can work - if I can actually...

ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE⁷: It's a Friday night. Jason Jones is kicking back on a couch in his Oakland apartment with roommate Tamiko Panzella. They're laughing about how Tamiko recently duped him into what he thought would be a regular gym workout.

JONES: I was like - oh, she got me into yoga. She tricked me (laughter).

WESTERVELT: What made it really jarring - this was Jason's first full day free after serving 14 years in California prisons.

JONES: You know, got me in my downward dog - you know, that's like the one position you don't want to be in in prison (laughter). Like, the first - the second day out. (Laughter) I mean. And I look over there; she's dying laughing. And I'm just like - aw, man, this is not good (laughter).

WESTERVELT: Laughing about a workout that wasn't - it's all normal, life-with-roommates kind of stuff. But all this is a new normal for the 35-year-old who grew up in and out of foster care and group homes. In America today, most of those getting out of prison after a long sentence are offered some kind of transitional housing that often involves communal⁸ living in cramped⁹ quarters with other ex-convicts. There are usually curfews, limits on visitors and other prison-like rules and restrictions¹⁰. But this pilot program has none of that. Called the Homecoming Project, Tamiko and her boyfriend Joe Klein are sharing their apartment with Jason. And his rent is paid for by the nonprofit group Impact Justice. Call it the social justice sharing economy.

ALEX BUSANSKY: The Homecoming Project says you're a person, and we're gonna treat you like a person. And we're going to give you the footholds and the scaffolding you need to be able to come back home and to be a full member of society, just like anybody else.

WESTERVELT: That's Alex Busansky, Impact Justice's president. The former Justice Department lawyer looked at the landscape and saw a huge need and nothing innovative¹¹ out there for former inmate³ housing. The group carefully screens both home host and ex-inmate to make sure it's a good housing match. There's also training and follow-up support. The experiment launched just a few months ago with six former inmates paired with local families around the Bay Area. Busansky says one of the biggest obstacles to expanding - finding enough hosts.

BUSANSKY: There's fear. There's apprehension¹². There's a sense of the unknown. And so it's hard to tell people - this is a great idea, and you should go to try it; bring a stranger getting out of prison into your home - not a conversation that most people are used to having.

WESTERVELT: But it's a conversation Busansky thinks America has to have, especially now as a bipartisan national movement tries to unwind decades of drug war-fueled mass incarceration¹³.

Jason's path to prison is a familiar one - absent parents, in and out of trouble with police, in and out of foster and group homes starting at age 8.

JONES: All the households I've been in consist of some kind of abuse, either mentally, verbally, physically¹⁴, whatever it was - or some kind of drug use in the household. Like, horrible experience - like...

WESTERVELT: He joined a gang at age 11. Eventually, Jason served 14 years in prison for felony charges, including assault with a deadly weapon. He was 20. Jason learned to code in prison, so he had a software job waiting for him when he got out. But he didn't have a home. So when he faced his release date, he worried the Homecoming Project was some kind of adult foster care, another dead end. But after living with Tamiko and Joe for a few months, Jason says it's really the only stable home he's ever known.

JONES: It's first time I, like, I seen healthy relationship - like, being in a household with a healthy relationship. It's the first time I've felt like I'm actually part of a family, you know what I mean? Like - so...

WESTERVELT: That's a big deal.

JONES: It is. And this is, like, a lot of things I didn't expect.

WESTERVELT: Jason reunited with his son and a daughter, but he's still trying to reconnect and get custody¹⁵ of another daughter who's now in foster care. It's complicated. It's hard. But Tamiko and Joe, with support from Impact Justice, have helped him navigate¹⁶ it all. Tamiko says she feels like Jason has helped me as much as I've helped him.

TAMIKO PANZELLA: I think we just have a really strong friendship. You know, I don't feel like I'm helping¹⁷ a stranger. You know, I feel like I just have a friend, roommate. Like, I feel kind of weird¹⁸ even saying that we're in a program because it doesn't really feel like that.

WESTERVELT: It just feels, she says, like life.

Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Oakland.

1 imprisons   

v.下狱，监禁( imprison的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Gatsby was overwhelmingly aware of the youth and mystery that wealth imprisons and preserves. 盖茨比深切地体会到财富怎样禁锢和保存着青春与神秘。 来自辞典例句
• And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage. 那用伦理道德界定他行为的人就像将他歌唱的鸟儿关进了笼子。 来自互联网

2 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

3 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

4 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

6 incarcerated   

钳闭的

参考例句：

• They were incarcerated for the duration of the war. 战争期间，他们被关在狱中。 来自辞典例句
• I don't want to worry them by being incarcerated. 我不想让他们知道我被拘禁的事情。 来自电影对白

7 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。

8 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

9 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

10 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

11 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

12 apprehension   

n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑

参考例句：

• There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑，于是她越来越担心。
• She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。

13 incarceration   

n.监禁，禁闭；钳闭

参考例句：

• He hadn't changed much in his nearly three years of incarceration. 在将近三年的监狱生活中，他变化不大。 来自辞典例句
• Please, please set it free before it bursts from its long incarceration! 请你，请你将这颗心释放出来吧！否则它会因长期的禁闭而爆裂。 来自辞典例句

14 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

15 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

16 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

17 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

18 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。