VOA双语新闻：3、美国依靠私营监狱降低费用（在线收听）

美国依靠私营监狱降低费用

The southern U.S. state of Louisiana has the world's highest incarceration rate. With about one in 90 adults in the prison system, the state is looking for ways to keep the facilities from overcrowding and incarceration costs from overburdening the budget.  One solution is sending low-risk inmates to cheaper private correctional centers, an option that has raised the ire of opponents.

美国南部的路易斯安那州的监禁率全世界第一，大约每90个成年人中，就有一个关在监狱里。路易斯安那州正在想方设法避免监狱过于拥挤，同时避免让监狱费用给财政预算带来过重负担。他们的解决之道是，把对社会威胁较小的囚犯送到成本较低的私立惩教中心，不过这个方案受到强烈反对。

Prisoners report that the conditions of private prisons can vary greatly. For four years, Harry has been serving time in prisons operated by various private companies. He is currently serving time in the Pine Prairie Correctional Center in rural Louisiana. Harry says he is treated better here than in the previous facility.

四年来，哈利出入于几座由不同私营公司管理的监狱，他目前在路易斯安那州农村的松原惩教中心服刑。哈利说，他在这里受到的待遇比原来要好。

“It was hard to go outside. They fed you in the dorm all the time, you know. We didn’t have no cafeteria to go to, so they brought the food to you. And then, when it was count time, you’d be sleeping, they’d wake you up out of a dead sleep and make you sit up,” said Harry.

他说：“在公立监狱里难得有机会到户外去，他们把饭送到牢房来。我们没有餐厅，所以他们把饭送来。点名的时候，你正在睡觉，他们会把你从沉睡中叫醒，让你坐直。”

Warden Terry Hines has worked in private as well as state-run prisons. He said private prisons ease the burden on U.S. taxpayers.

特里·海因斯在私立和公立监狱中都当过看守。他说，私立监狱减轻了美国纳税人的负担。

“I can do it cheaper every day per inmate than the state or the parish can do it every day. And for the facilities that have federal contracts, we have shown, we have proven we can do it cheaper than the federal prisons can,” said Hines, warden of Harry’s prison.

他说：“私立监狱每个囚犯每天的花费要比州立和教区监狱便宜。我们这些承接联邦政府合同的设施已经证明，我们比联邦监狱省钱。”

To keep the operational costs down, private companies have a lower budget for each prisoner than the state-run facilities, and their employees have lower wages. Mark, also an inmate at the Pine Prairie facility, said private prisons offer fewer programs for their inmates.

为了降低成本，私人公司给每个囚犯的预算要低于公立监狱，而他们雇员的工资也比较低。马克也是松原惩教中心的囚犯，他说，私立监狱为囚犯提供的活动比较少。

“[Private facilities] don’t have field work or a lot of them don’t have trades, trade schools, see. But in a state facility you can take up these trades, you can go work in the fields, you can go work in a barn, like, you can do all different types of jobs. But here jobs are limited,” said Mark.

马克说：“私立监狱没有实地工作机会，很多私立监狱没有职业培训，或职业学校。可是在公立监狱，你可以接受职业培训，你可以参加实地工作，可以到农场去劳动，可以从事各种不同工作，可是这里的工作很有限。”

Critics also point out that private prisons work for profit and therefore skew justice system priorities. Diana Kaplan, director of Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, an advocacy group, is worried about the poor incentives created by for-profit prisons.

批评人士还指出，私立监狱的目的是盈利，颠倒了司法制度的重点。戴安娜·卡普兰是权益机构路易斯安那州青少年司法项目的负责人。

“We begin to make criminal justice policies not based on what reduces crime or how do we save taxpayer dollars, but we base criminal justice policy based on what is going to drive the economic engines of the criminal justice system," said Kaplan.

她说：“我们在制定刑事司法政策的过程中开始不考虑减少犯罪或者节省纳税人的钱，而是被刑事司法系统的经济效益所驱动。”

Louisiana’s incarceration rate has doubled in the roughly two decades since the state's first private prisons went into operation.

在路易斯安那州第一座私立监狱投入使用的20年来，路易斯安那州的监禁率上升了一倍。