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本帖最后由 woikuraki 于 2012-4-6 10:32 编辑
【中文标题】阶下囚之国
【原文标题】incarnation nation
【登载媒体】CNN
【原文链接】http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/30/zakaria-incarceration-nation-2/
【译者】 woikuraki
【翻译方式】人工
【声明】 欢迎转载，请务必注明译者和出处 bbs.m4.cn。
Something caught my eye the other day: Pat Robertson, the high priest of the religious right, had some startling things to say about drugs.
"I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Mr. Robertson said in a recent interview. "I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think. This war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."
宗教右派领袖帕特罗伯逊几天前发表了一些关于毒品的惊人言论，这吸引了我的注意力。“我觉得我们应该以对待酒精饮料相同的态度来对待大麻，”罗伯逊先生在最近的一次采访中说。“我从来没有用过大麻，也没有这种打算。不过这是我思考的问题中的一个，这场对抗毒品的战争还远没有胜利。”
The reason Robertson is for legalizing marijuana is that it has created a prison problem in America that is well beyond what most Americans imagine.
罗伯逊支持大麻合法化的原因在于他提出了美国的监狱困境，这一困境是超乎很多美国人想象的。
"It's completely out of control," Mr. Robertson said. "Prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs. And the penalties - the maximums - some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana. It makes no sense at all."
“现在的局势已经完全失去控制了，”罗伯逊说。“监狱里面关的都是参与了毒品交易的少年犯。最重的判刑是他们中的有些人可能会因为携带一块大麻而判十年。这根本就没有道理。”
He’s right. Here are the numbers: The total number of Americans under correctional supervision (prison, parole, etc.) is 7.1 million, more than the entire state of Massachusetts. Adam Gopnik writes in the New Yorker, "Over all, there are now more people under 'correctional supervision' in America...than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height."No other country comes even close to our rates of incarceration. We have 760 prisoners per 100,000 people. Most European countries have one seventh that number (per capita, so it's adjusted for population). Even those on the high end of the global spectrum - Brazil and Poland - have only a quarter the number we do.
他说的是对的。以下是具体的数据：美国处于矫正性监督（监狱，假释等）的人有710万之众，比马塞诸塞州的人口还多。亚当格尼克在《纽约客》中写道，“现在美国处于‘矫正性监督’的人比斯大林统治时期的古拉格监狱(苏联关押罪犯和政治犯的劳改营)里面的人还多。”我们国家的监禁率是其他国家无法望项背的。我们每10万人中就有760个监犯，大部分欧洲国家都只是这个数字的七分之一而已。即使是那些犯罪率相对比较高的国家，比如说巴西和波兰，他们的数字也只是美国的四分之一。
投狱率比较，美国，法国，意大利，德国，英国，瑞士
If you say this is some kind of enduring aspect of America's "Wild West" culture, you would be wrong. In 1980, our rates of incarceration were a quarter what they are now. What changed was the war on drugs and the mindless proliferation of laws that created criminal penalties for anything and everything. If you don’t believe me, listen to Pat Roberston again. Here's a quote: "We here in America make up 5% of the world's population, but we make up 25% of jailed prisoners...”
如果你想说这只是美国“狂野西部”文化的特点的话，那么你就错了。我们1980年的投狱率只是现在的四分之一。不同的是我们现在发动了对毒品的清剿还对任何行为都制定了刑事处罚。你要是不相信我就听听罗伯逊的意见，以下是他的原话： “我们美国人只占全球人口的5%，但我们美国的囚犯却占全球的25%。”
In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education. In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons, versus $5.7 billion on higher education. Since 1980, California has built one college campus; it's built 21 prisons. The state spends $8,667 per student per year. It spends about $50,000 per inmate per year.
在过去的20年中，国家用于监狱的开支的增速是用于教育开支的增速的6倍。2011年加州用于监狱的开支为96亿美元，而用于高等教育的只有57亿美元。1980年以来，加州只建了一所大学，却建了21所监狱。该州每年在每个学生身上的花费是8667美元，每个囚犯是5万美元。
Why is this happening? Prisons are a big business. Most are privately run. They have powerful lobbyists and they have bought most state politicians. Meanwhile, we are bankrupting out states and creating a vast underclass of prisoners who will never be equipped for productive lives.
I never thought I'd say this, but God bless you, Pat Robertson.
为什么会变成这个样子？因为监狱是一笔大的买卖。大部分监狱都是私营的，他们不仅有很强大的说客，还买通了大部分州的政客。与此同时，我们的各州都濒临破产，还不断把人们投入监狱，创造了一个人数众多的永远都没法过上有意义生活的社会底层。我之前从未想到自己会这么说，不过上帝保佑你，帕特罗伯逊。
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