美国国家公共电台 NPR Philadephia's New DA Wants Prosecutors To Talk Cost Of Incarceration While In Court

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Every day, judges around the country decide the fate of criminal defendants¹ by trying to strike the right balance between fairness and public safety. A new progressive district attorney in Philadelphia is asking his prosecutors³ to raise another factor with judges - the cost of incarceration⁴. As Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY reports, the move has sparked a debate about whether the price of punishment belongs in courtrooms.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE⁵: Philadelphia's new reform-minded district attorney Larry Krasner came into office promising⁶ to reduce prison stays. And so he's launched an experiment. At sentencing hearings, when prosecutors traditionally talk about the impact on victims and the community and the need for deterrence⁷, they will also have to do a little math. Since the average cost of housing a prisoner for a year in Pennsylvania is $42,000, the prosecutor² might say something like, judge, we are recommending four years in prison for this person. And that will cost taxpayers⁹ more than $160,000. Here's Krasner.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LARRY KRASNER: A dollar spent on incarceration should be worth it. Otherwise, that dollar may be better spent on addiction¹⁰ treatment, on public education, on policing and on other types of activity that make us all safer.

ALLYN: Asking prosecutors to tell judges the taxpayer⁸ tab of putting someone away is unusual. In 2010, Missouri made a similar proposal, making cost information available to judges, but it wasn't mandatory¹¹. And University of Pennsylvania law and economics professor David Abrams says nobody ever studied whether that policy affected¹² what kind of punishment judges handed down.

DAVID ABRAMS: I think there are going to be marginal cases where this will make a difference.

ALLYN: Not everybody in Philadelphia's criminal justice world is embracing the news. Some prosecutors say privately¹³ that they're ignoring the guidance completely. And one judge recently said he'd hold an assistant district attorney in contempt of court if the cost issue was raised again. Richard Sax isn't surprised. He spent more than 30 years as a homicide prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office before retiring last year. Here's his appraisal¹⁴ of Krasner's new policy.

RICHARD SAX: The words that come to mind are absurd, irrelevant¹⁵, ridiculous, nonsense and horrific.

ALLYN: Sax calls the announcement a public relations stunt¹⁶ and says it is insulting to victims of crime.

SAX: It should have no bearing on whether society or a community or people who are at risk of being victimized should be protected from a human being, an individual.

ALLYN: And some families of crime victims agree with Sax, like Celestine Shorts of north Philadelphia. Her brother, Christopher, was fatally shot last year. She says a courtroom debate about money would be upsetting to her.

CELESTINE SHORTS: When you voluntarily hurt somebody, I think you should be accountable for your actions. Was it only set to work if it's in a budget or was it set with laws are laws and rules are rules? We have a structure.

ALLYN: But Krasner says that structure has caused America to have more criminals locked up than any other country. Krasner swats away criticism that shorter time behind bars will mean more crime.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KRASNER: There are limits to this kind of deterrence theory when you're dealing¹⁷ with people whose judgment¹⁸ is poor, whose judgment may be impaired¹⁹, whose judgment is impaired among other things by youth.

ALLYN: Yet others say the primary job of the prosecutor is to advocate for victims of crime. And sometimes that means asking for a lengthy²⁰ sentence regardless of its financial debt to society. For NPR News, I'm Bobby Allyn in Philadelphia.

SIMON: And tomorrow on Weekend Edition Sunday, guest host Korva Coleman talks to NPR's Howard Berkes about a new Kentucky law that puts doctors working for coal companies in charge of diagnosing the deathly black lung disease.

1 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

2 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。

3 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。

4 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

5 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。

6 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

7 deterrence   

威慑，制止； 制止物，制止因素； 挽留的事物； 核威慑

参考例句：

• An extreme school of "disarmers" pronounced stable deterrence was a dangerous deception. “裁军论者”中的极端派声称，稳定的威摄是一种危险的骗局。
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。

8 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

9 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

10 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

11 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。

12 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。

13 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

14 appraisal   

n.对…作出的评价；评价，鉴定，评估

参考例句：

• What's your appraisal of the situation?你对局势是如何评估的？
• We need to make a proper appraisal of his work.对于他的工作我们需要做出适当的评价。

15 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

16 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

17 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

18 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

19 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。