美国众议院在8年内通过了第一项主要的监狱改革措施

US House Passes 1st Major Prison Reform Measure in 8 Years

The rate of imprisonment¹ in the United States is the highest in the world. Many lawmakers and policy experts have called the situation a prison epidemic².

But, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democratic Party member from New York, told VOA the beginning of the end of the epidemic started on Tuesday.

Jeffries helped introduce the First Step Act.

The bill is a bipartisan prison reform law. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a 360-59 vote. Jeffries says it "strikes an opening blow against the overcriminalization of the nation.”

U.S. President Donald Trump³ said the strong bipartisan vote opens the way for action by the Senate. Last week, Trump endorsed⁵ the bill at a White House conference on prison reform. He said that the U.S. gains a lot if former prisoners are able to reenter society as productive citizens who obey the law.

If the bill passes the Senate and is signed by the president, it would provide $50 million in financing for five years. The money would pay for job training, education and drug abuse treatment for prisoners. It would also provide a number of measures aimed at reducing high rates of recidivism⁶ among former prisoners.

Opposing views

But the issue of criminal justice reform has split Democrats⁷ and Republicans within their political parties. And that may hurt the bill’s chances of passage as it goes to the U.S. Senate.

In a letter last week, five members of Congress said the bill could not be carried out effectively and could possibly lead to the privatization of prisons.

They include Senators Kamala Harris, Dick Durbin and Cory Booker and House Representatives John Lewis and Sheila Jackson Lee. All are Democratic Party members.

Jeffries told VOA many of the arguments against the First Step Act were based on false ideas.

He added that the bill’s passage "is a first step” towards ending the “cancer of mass incarceration⁸." Republicans in the House also welcomed the bill.

Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, is the House Judiciary Chairman. On the House floor Tuesday, he said, “Rather than allowing the cycle of crime to continue,” this bill takes a useful and “intelligent approach to rehabilitation⁹.”

The bill represents the first major criminal justice reform effort since the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. That measure reduced the difference in mandatory¹⁰ minimum sentences between drug offenders¹¹ possessing two kinds of cocaine¹². Before the Act, those possessing crack cocaine faced sentences greater than those possessing powdered cocaine. The bill’s supporters said this unfairly affected¹³ African Americans.

But the First Step Act faces much opposition¹⁴ in the Senate. There, a bipartisan group of senators is pushing for more complete criminal justice reform.

An opposing bill is the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. It has received strong support by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican. The bill calls for lower sentences for nonviolent, low-level offenders and gives judges greater choices for sentencing.

More than 20 senators have signed on to the bill, but the Trump administration opposes the measure.

Sentencing laws

Required minimum sentences for drug offenses¹⁵ came into use in the 1970s and 1980s. They are widely blamed for a sharp rise in the number of U.S. prisoners in the last several years.

In recent years, the number of U.S. prisoners has fallen. But, the Bureau of Prisons says nearly half of the 184,000 prisoners currently held in federal prisons are serving time for drug crimes.

Observers say the disagreement in Congress over prison reform is similar to a disagreement among supporters of reforming America’s criminal justice system.

On one side of the debate is a group of more than 100 organizations. It includes the American Civil Liberties Union and National Association for the Advancement¹⁶ of Colored People. These groups opposed the bill passed by the House. They said it would not be able to bring about “meaningful” criminal justice reform.

In a letter last Monday, the group said the House bill fails to deal with racial inequalities, problems with mandatory minimums, overcrowding, lack of rehabilitation and the high cost of imprisonment.

At the other side of the debate is a group of more than 70 organizations that support the legislation. It includes Koch Industries, headed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, and Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that opposes such laws.

Kevin Ring, the group’s president, said the chances of sentencing reform under the Trump administration are low.

For this reason, he said, Congress is likely to only pass prison reform.

“What we don’t want to do is make the perfect the enemy of the good: kill a bill that has modest reforms that will help real people just because we’re waiting for something that’s not likely to happen in this administration,” Ring said.

Ring said he hopes negotiations¹⁷ in the Senate can lead to a compromise between the First Step Act and the bill supported by Grassley.

I’m Phil Dierking. And I’m Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

epidemic –n. when a disease spreads quickly to many people

bipartisan –adj. related to or involving members of two parties

endorse⁴ –v. to support

recidivism –n. when people continue to commit crimes after they have been caught and punished

cycle –n. events that happen again and again

rehabilitation –n. to bring someone or something back to normal or back to health after they have been sick or have had problems

mandatory minimum –adj. related to a required least amount of something

1 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

2 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。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

5 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 recidivism   

n.累犯，再犯

参考例句：

• Many areas and work units have experienced no recidivism at all for as long as ten or more years.不少地区和单位出现了连续几年、十几年没有发生重新犯罪的好典型。
• It needs to supplement the personality factor to confirm the ordinary recidivism.在普通累犯成立的条件中,应增加罪犯的人格因素。

7 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》

8 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

9 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

10 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

11 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。

12 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。

13 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

14 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

15 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

16 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

17 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。