PBS高端访谈:关于美国刑事司法改革

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: This week, the issue of criminal justice reform, who goes to prison in America, hit a kind of critical mass, with action from President Obama, in Congress and on presidential campaigns.

　　As part of our Broken Justice series, our Lisa Desjardins lays out the reform movement that both Republicans and Democrats¹ are pushing, and which some in law enforcement want to push back.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: It was a symbol intended to spark sweeping² change, the first visit ever by a sitting U.S. president to a federal prison. President Obama's walk today through the El Reno facility outside Oklahoma City capped off his weeklong push on what he calls a broken criminal justice system.

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: These are young people who made mistakes that aren't that different than the mistakes I made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys made.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Monday, the president commutes³ sentences for 46 drug offenders⁴. Tuesday, at the NAACP National Convention in Philadelphia, the president speaks to the racial disparity within the prison population.

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: African-Americans and Latinos make up 30 percent of our population. They make up 60 percent of our inmates⁵. About one in every 35 African-American men, one in every 88 Latino men is serving time right now. Among white men, that number is one in 214.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: President Obama is adding his voice to a bipartisan call for reform of the criminal justice system.

　　Today, Republican presidential hopeful and New Jersey⁶ Governor Chris Christie released his plan to educate prisoners.

　　GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, Republican Presidential Candidate: If we're going to incarcerate⁷ people, then we should make them do something productive, not just sit around watching TV all day. One solution is to require inmates to try and get their GED before release, so they have some minimum qualifications.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Reforming criminal justice is on the radar⁸ of nearly all those who would be president. In the past few months, 18 of the current 20 presidential candidates have argued for some kind of change.

　　Up on Capitol Hill, ideas have made it into a group of bills that are moving toward floor votes. A House Oversight⁹ Committee hearing this week reviewed a number of reform proposals, including a bill sponsored by Senate Republican John Cornyn.

　　SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), Texas: It costs $30,000 a year to incarcerate an individual in prison and less than $8,000 to keep them on pre-release custody¹⁰, like home confinement¹¹ and the like.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: Watching the hearing, Mark Holden, a lawyer for the Republican mega-donors the Koch brothers. They're also part of the movement. Koch Industries, along with Target, Home Depot¹² and Wal-Mart, have all banned the box, or removed questions about past convictions on company job applications.

　　It is the latest move in decades of debate over how to stop crime.

　　FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: Today, there's a new epidemic¹³, smokable cocaine¹⁴, otherwise known as crack.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: The emergence¹⁵ of crack cocaine in the 1980s and the war on drugs led to widespread lock 'em up policies for drug offenders.

　　Democrats were also tough on crime. President Clinton's 1994 crime bill lengthened¹⁶ sentences for nonviolent criminals, while pouring nearly $10 billion into prisons. The result? The number of people behind bars skyrocketed from 500,000 in 1980 to more than 2.2 million today.

　　The rise in the numbers incarcerated¹⁷ and the drop in crime is an indicator¹⁸ of a working system to federal prosecutor¹⁹ Steve Wasserman. He fears the push for reform is shortsighted and dangerous.

　　STEVE WASSERMAN, Assistant U.S. Attorney: Our criminal justice system has resulted in the last 25 years in the reduction of violent crime by about 50 percent and property crime also at about 50 percent. So, crime is at its lowest levels in a generation.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: And you're saying it's because of criminal justice, because we incarcerate people, we put them in jail?

　　STEVE WASSERMAN: Incarceration²⁰ does reduce crime.

　　LISA DESJARDINS: It is a furious debate that is now expanding in both parties. How do you continue to reduce crime, while also rethinking who is put behind bars?

　　For the PBS NewsHour, I am Lisa Desjardins in Washington.

　　GWEN IFILL: This week, Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley seemed to give the reform movement a boost, announcing he's trying to reach a compromise to lower minimum sentences and reform prisons.

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

3 commutes   

上下班路程( commute的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She commutes from Oxford to London every day. 她每天上下班往返于牛津与伦敦之间。
• Barbara lives in Oxford and commutes. 芭芭拉住在牛津，通勤往来。

4 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。

5 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》

6 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。

7 incarcerate   

v.监禁，禁闭

参考例句：

• Why do you incarcerate yourself in the room every afternoon?你为何每天下午将自己关在房间里？
• Many people think that it is wrong to incarcerate criminals in confined quarters for as long as thirty years.很多人认为把罪犯监禁在禁闭营里达30年之久是不对的。

8 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

9 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

10 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。

11 confinement   

n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限

参考例句：

• He spent eleven years in solitary confinement.他度过了11年的单独监禁。
• The date for my wife's confinement was approaching closer and closer.妻子分娩的日子越来越近了。

12 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

13 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

14 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

15 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

16 lengthened   

（时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The afternoon shadows lengthened. 下午影子渐渐变长了。
• He wanted to have his coat lengthened a bit. 他要把上衣放长一些。

17 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

18 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。

19 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。

20 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