The following are my opinions, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of any particular prosecutor's office.
以下是我的個人意見, 並不反映任何地檢處的意見或政策。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I am a prosecutor. I believe in law and order. I am the adopted son of a police officer, a Marine and a hairdresser. I believe in accountability and that we should all be safe in our communities. I love my job and the people that do it. I just think that it's our responsibility to do it better.
我是檢察官。 我相信法治。 我是一名警員、海軍、 和髮型師收養的兒子。 我相信人皆應為 所做的決定或行動負責。 我們應能安全地生活在 自己的社區裡。 我熱愛我的工作和工作的同袍。 我只是認為我們有責任不斷改進。
By a show of hands, how many of you, by the age of 25, had either acted up in school, went somewhere you were specifically told to stay out of, or drank alcohol before your legal age?
請舉手示意, 你們當中有多少人在25歲前 曾在學校搗蛋, 闖入別人特別交代你不要去的地方, 或者未成年飲酒?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
All right.
很好。
How many of you shoplifted, tried an illegal drug or got into a physical fight -- yes, even with a sibling? Now, how many of you ever spent one day in jail for any of those decisions? How many of you sitting here today think that you're a danger to society or should be defined by those actions of youthful indiscretion?
有多少人曾經偷竊, 嘗試非法藥物, 或者打架? 對,跟兄弟姊妹也算。 有多少人曾經因為 那些決定而入獄呢? 今日在座有多少人 認為自己對社會構成危險, 或者,那些年少輕狂的行為 定位了你是個什麼樣的人?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Point taken.
明白意思了。
When we talk about criminal justice reform, we often focus on a few things, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. But first I'm going to -- since you shared with me, I'm going to give you a confession on my part. I went to law school to make money. I had no interest in being a public servant, I had no interest in criminal law, and I definitely didn't think that I would ever be a prosecutor.
當我們提到刑事審判的改革, 我們通常聚焦在一些事情上, 這就是我今天要跟大家談的。 由於你們並不隱瞞你們的過去, 所以首先我要坦白, 我讀法律學院是為了賺大錢。 我沒意願當公務人員, 對犯罪法並沒有興趣, 更絕對沒想過要當檢察官。
Near the end of my first year of law school, I got an internship in the Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal Court. I knew of Roxbury as an impoverished neighborhood in Boston, plagued by gun violence and drug crime. My life and my legal career changed the first day of that internship. I walked into a courtroom, and I saw an auditorium of people who, one by one, would approach the front of that courtroom to say two words and two words only: "Not guilty." They were predominately black and brown. And then a judge, a defense attorney and a prosecutor would make life-altering decisions about that person without their input. They were predominately white. As each person, one by one, approached the front of that courtroom, I couldn't stop but think: How did they get here? I wanted to know their stories. And as the prosecutor read the facts of each case, I was thinking to myself, we could have predicted that. That seems so preventable... not because I was an expert in criminal law, but because it was common sense.
法學院一年級快結束時, 我得到一個在波士頓法院 羅克斯伯里司的實習機會。 我知道羅克斯伯里是 波士頓的一個貧窮街坊, 槍枝暴力和毒品問題猖獗。 我的人生和法律職業 在實習的第一天就轉變了。 走進法庭,我看見大堂裡滿滿是人, 他們一個接著一個走近臺前, 只說兩個字「無罪」。 他們幾乎全是黑皮膚或棕色皮膚。 然後,法官、辯護律師、檢察官們, 沒有聽聽他們的說法, 就做出改變他們生命的決定。 法官、辯護律師、檢察官 幾乎全是白人。 當每個人一個接一個走向前, 我忍不住想: 他們為什麼會站在這裡? 我想知道他們的故事。 身為檢察官,我仔細研讀每一案件。 我在心裡對自己說, 我們本來可以預測得到, 本可防止,讓它不發生的... 不因我是個刑法專家, 而是基於常識。
Over the course of the internship, I began to recognize people in the auditorium, not because they were criminal masterminds but because they were coming to us for help and we were sending them out without any.
在實習的過程中, 我開始了解,人們出現在法庭上 不是因為他們是犯罪主謀, 而是來尋求我們的幫助, 但我們未提供任何幫助 就送走他們。
My second year of law school I worked as a paralegal for a defense attorney, and in that experience I met many young men accused of murder. Even in our "worst," I saw human stories. And they all contained childhood trauma, victimization, poverty, loss, disengagement from school, early interaction with the police and the criminal justice system, all leading to a seat in a courtroom. Those convicted of murder were condemned to die in prison, and it was during those meetings with those men that I couldn't fathom why we would spend so much money to keep this one person in jail for the next 80 years when we could have reinvested it up front, and perhaps prevented the whole thing from happening in the first place.
就讀法律學院的第二年, 我的工作是辯護律師的助理。 在這段經驗中,我碰到許多 被指控謀殺的年輕男子。 即使是最「糟糕」的情況, 我仍看到人的故事。 他們都有童年創傷, 受害、貧窮、失落、 輟學、 早年就已與警察、司法系統有牽連。 這些都導致他們出現在法庭裡。 那些被判謀殺罪名成立、 被譴責應該死在獄中的人。 與那些人討論、商談之間, 我想不透,為什麼我們要花大錢 把他們關在監獄裡80年, 而不是在他們犯罪之前做些什麼, 也許在第一時間 就早已阻止事情發生。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
My third year of law school, I defended people accused of small street crimes, mostly mentally ill, mostly homeless, mostly drug-addicted, all in need of help. They would come to us, and we would send them away without that help. They were in need of our assistance. But we weren't giving them any. Prosecuted, adjudged and defended by people who knew nothing about them.
就讀法學院的第三年時, 我為被控犯了街頭小罪的人辯護。 他們大多患精神病、 無家可歸或吸毒成癮。 他們都需要幫忙。 他們來尋求協助, 而我們未提供任何協助, 就把他們送走了。 他們需要我們的幫助, 但我們並沒有給予任何幫助; 反而由全然不認識、 不了解他們的人 來起訴、辯護和判決他們。
The staggering inefficiency is what drove me to criminal justice work. The unfairness of it all made me want to be a defender. The power dynamic that I came to understand made me become a prosecutor.
這驚人的低下效率,使我轉換跑道 改做刑事司法的工作。 這一切的不公平 讓我想成為一名辯護人。 這股動力使我明白過來, 成為一名檢察官。
I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about the problem. We know the criminal justice system needs reform, we know there are 2.3 million people in American jails and prisons, making us the most incarcerated nation on the planet. We know there's another seven million people on probation or parole, we know that the criminal justice system disproportionately affects people of color, particularly poor people of color. And we know there are system failures happening everywhere that bring people to our courtrooms. But what we do not discuss is how ill-equipped our prosecutors are to receive them. When we talk about criminal justice reform, we, as a society, focus on three things. We complain, we tweet, we protest about the police, about sentencing laws and about prison. We rarely, if ever, talk about the prosecutor.
我不想花太多時間討論這問題。 我們都知道司法系統亟需改革, 在美國有230萬人被關在監獄中, 使我國成為世界上 禁錮最多人犯的國家。 我們知道另有七百萬人 正在緩刑或假釋中。 我們知道司法系統 不成比例地影響有色人種, 尤其是貧窮的有色人種。 我們知道司法系統處處失敗。 它把人送進法庭, 卻不討論如何教 裝備不良的檢察官怎麼處理他們。 當討論司法改革時, 我們社會通常聚焦在三件事情上。 我們抱怨,我們發聲,我們抗議 關於警察、刑則法條,和監獄。 我們幾乎沒有談到檢察官。
In the fall of 2009, a young man was arrested by the Boston Police Department. He was 18 years old, he was African American and he was a senior at a local public school. He had his sights set on college but his part-time, minimum-wage job wasn't providing the financial opportunity he needed to enroll in school. In a series of bad decisions, he stole 30 laptops from a store and sold them on the Internet. This led to his arrest and a criminal complaint of 30 felony charges. The potential jail time he faced is what stressed Christopher out the most. But what he had little understanding of was the impact a criminal record would have on his future.
在2009年的秋天, 波士頓警察局逮捕一名年輕男子。 他十八歲,非洲裔美國人, 是當地公立高中的高三學生。 他原將目標設定在上大學, 但他僅僅最低薪資的兼職工作 根本無法賺夠註冊費。 一連串錯誤決定之後, 他偷了三十台筆記型電腦,網拍。 這導致他被逮捕, 面臨偷竊三十台電腦的重罪指控。 克里斯托弗最緊張的是 他可能面臨的監獄刑期。 但是他並不清楚, 他的犯罪記錄 將會影響他未來的人生。
I was standing in arraignments that day when Christopher's case came across my desk. And at the risk of sounding dramatic, in that moment, I had Christopher's life in my hands. I was 29 years old, a brand-new prosecutor, and I had little appreciation for how the decisions I would make would impact Christopher's life. Christopher's case was a serious one and it needed to be dealt with as such, but I didn't think branding him a felon for the rest of his life was the right answer.
那天,我站在提訊桌前, 克里斯托弗的檔案在我桌上。 聽起來相當戲劇化, 當時我手中握著克里斯托弗的前程。 那時我29歲,是新手檢察官。 我意識到我當時做的決定 將會影響克里斯托弗的一生。 克里斯托弗的案件很嚴重, 需要嚴肅對待。 但我不認為 把他的下半生銘記為罪犯 是對的。
For the most part, prosecutors step onto the job with little appreciation of the impact of our decisions, regardless of our intent. Despite our broad discretion, we learn to avoid risk at all cost, rendering our discretion basically useless. History has conditioned us to believe that somehow, the criminal justice system brings about accountability and improves public safety, despite evidence to the contrary. We're judged internally and externally by our convictions and our trial wins, so prosecutors aren't really incentivized to be creative at our case dispositions, or to take risks on people we might not otherwise. We stick to an outdated method, counterproductive to achieving the very goal that we all want, and that's safer communities.
在大多數情況下, 接案的檢察官並未意識到 所做的決定將造成的影響, 姑且不論原先的意向。 儘管我們慎重地裁量, 但我們不惜一切代價 以規避風險的既成習性, 使我們的判斷基本上不可用。 歷史經驗的訓練,讓我們相信 刑事司法系統令人為犯行負責, 並提高公眾安全; 儘管佐證明顯是相反的。 內部和外部都以定罪和勝訴 來判斷我們的績效, 致使檢察官在處理案子時, 沒有誘因創意地去採證, 或為人承擔風險。 我們拘泥於過時的方法, 因而適得其反, 無法達到大家的共同目標: 更安全的社會。
Yet most prosecutors standing in my space would have arraigned Christopher. They have little appreciation for what we can do. Arraigning Christopher would give him a criminal record, making it harder for him to get a job, setting in motion a cycle that defines the failing criminal justice system today. With a criminal record and without a job, Christopher would be unable to find employment, education or stable housing. Without those protective factors in his life, Christopher would be more likely to commit further, more serious crime. The more contact Christopher had with the criminal justice system, the more likely it would be that he would return again and again and again -- all at tremendous social cost to his children, to his family and to his peers. And, ladies and gentlemen, it is a terrible public safety outcome for the rest of us.
大多數的檢察官若站在我的立場, 他們會起訴克里斯托弗。 他們幾乎不會意識到能夠做些什麼。 起訴克里斯托弗 將會留給他犯罪紀錄, 使他很難找到工作, 進入惡性循環, 造成我們當前失敗的刑事司法系統。 有犯罪紀錄、沒有工作、 克里斯托弗將無法被僱用、 受教育,或有穩定的居所。 若沒有這些生命裡的保護因素, 克里斯托弗恐將難免 犯更多、更嚴重的罪。 克里斯托弗越是與司法系統有牽連, 就越可能一而再、再而三地 陷入刑事事件中, 而這引發的高昂社會成本, 將由他的子女、家人 以及同儕來承擔。 各位先生、女士, 這樣的社安結果 將是我們所有人的夢魘。
When I came out of law school, I did the same thing as everybody else. I came out as a prosecutor expected to do justice, but I never learned what justice was in my classes -- none of us do. None of us do.
剛從法學院畢業時, 我和大家一樣, 期待當一名伸張正義的檢察官。 但我未曾在課堂上學到正義是什麼。 沒人學過。沒人學過。
And yet, prosecutors are the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system. Our power is virtually boundless. In most cases, not the judge, not the police, not the legislature, not the mayor, not the governor, not the President can tell us how to prosecute our cases. The decision to arraign Christopher and give him a criminal record was exclusively mine. I would choose whether to prosecute him for 30 felonies, for one felony, for a misdemeanor, or at all. I would choose whether to leverage Christopher into a plea deal or take the case to trial, and ultimately, I would be in a position to ask for Christopher to go to jail. These are decisions that prosecutors make every day unfettered, and we are unaware and untrained of the grave consequences of those decisions.
然而,檢察官是刑事司法系統中 最強大的角色。 我們的力量幾乎無限, 在大多數的案件當中, 不是法官、警察、立法機關, 也不是市長、州長、總統 告訴我們如何起訴案件。 起訴克里斯托弗與否, 讓他留下犯罪紀錄與否, 完全由我決定。 由我來決定起訴他 三十個重罪、一個重罪、一個輕罪, 或以上全部。 由我選擇讓他協議認罪或開庭審理, 最終,我的處境將會是 送克里斯托弗去坐牢。 這些是檢察官每天 在不受約束的情況下所做的決定。 而我們未經訓練,也不明白 這些決定的嚴重後果是什麼。
One night this past summer, I was at a small gathering of professional men of color from around the city. As I stood there stuffing free finger sandwiches into my mouth, as you do as public servant --
在剛過的夏天的某一晚, 我參加一個本市各地有色人種 專業男士的小聚會, 我站在那裡,大啖免費的小三明治, 如同公僕們常做的 --
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I noticed across the room, a young man waving and smiling at me and approaching me. And I recognized him, but I couldn't place from where, and before I knew it, this young man was hugging me. And thanking me. "You cared about me, and you changed my life." It was Christopher.
我注意到在房間的那一頭, 有一個年輕男子, 微笑、揮手,向我走過來。 我認得他的臉, 但不確定在哪裡見過他。 這年輕男子幾乎立刻擁抱 和感謝我。 「你在乎我,並改變了我的生命。」 他是克里斯托弗。
See, I never arraigned Christopher. He never faced a judge or a jail, he never had a criminal record. Instead, I worked with Christopher; first on being accountable for his actions, and then, putting him in a position where he wouldn't re-offend. We recovered 75 percent of the computers that he sold and gave them back to Best Buy, and came up with a financial plan to repay for the computers we couldn't recover. Christopher did community service. He wrote an essay reflecting on how this case could impact his future and that of the community. He applied to college, he obtained financial aid, and he went on to graduate from a four-year school.
我並未起訴克里斯托弗。 他並沒有面對審判或進監獄, 沒留下犯罪紀錄。 我和克里斯托弗一起達成替代方案; 首先,他要為自己的行為負責, 然後,確保他不會再犯。 我們找回75%他當初賣掉的電腦, 歸還給賣場, 並對沒找回的電腦擬定賠償計畫。 克里斯托弗做社區服務。 他寫文章反思這案件 對於他和社會未來的影響。 他申請大學,獲得獎學金, 從四年制大學畢業。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
After we finished hugging, I looked at his name tag, to learn that Christopher was the manager of a large bank in Boston. Christopher had accomplished -- and making a lot more money than me --
在結束擁抱後,我看他的名牌, 得知克里斯托弗是 波士頓一間大銀行的經理。 克里斯托弗已獲得成就, 並且賺的錢比我多。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
He had accomplished all of this in the six years since I had first seen him in Roxbury Court. I can't take credit for Christopher's journey to success, but I certainly did my part to keep him on the path.
自我第一次在羅克斯伯里法院 看到他起至今, 六年間,他已經完成了這一切。 克里斯托弗的成功,我不能居功, 但我肯定有部分幫助到他, 使他留在正途。
There are thousands of Christophers out there, some locked in our jails and prisons. We need thousands of prosecutors to recognize that and to protect them. An employed Christopher is better for public safety than a condemned one. It's a bigger win for all of us. In retrospect, the decision not to throw the book at Christopher makes perfect sense. When I saw him that first day in Roxbury Court, I didn't see a criminal standing there. I saw myself -- a young person in need of intervention. As an individual caught selling a large quantity of drugs in my late teens, I knew firsthand the power of opportunity as opposed to the wrath of the criminal justice system. Along the way, with the help and guidance of my district attorney, my supervisor and judges, I learned the power of the prosecutor to change lives instead of ruining them.
外頭還有上千位的克里斯托弗, 有一些被鎖在監獄中。 我們需要數以千計的檢察官 去了解這點和保護他們。 就公共安全而言,有前途的克里斯托弗 比直接送他入獄來得好。 這使我們都成為贏家。 現在回想起來, 不起訴克里斯托弗的決定非常合理。 我第一次在羅克斯伯里法院 看到他的那天, 我看到的, 不是站在那兒的一個罪犯。 我看到我自己 -- 一位需要介入幫助的年輕人 -- 如同我青少年時期所見 因販售大量毒品而被抓的人, 我親身體會到善用機會的大力量, 它和雷霆般的司法系統恰恰相反。 過程中,在地區檢察官、上司、 和法官的幫助和指導下, 我學會運用檢察官的力量, 去改變生命,而不是去毀滅生命。
And that's how we do it in Boston. We helped a woman who was arrested for stealing groceries to feed her kids get a job. Instead of putting an abused teenager in adult jail for punching another teenager, we secured mental health treatment and community supervision. A runaway girl who was arrested for prostituting, to survive on the streets, needed a safe place to live and grow -- something we could help her with. I even helped a young man who was so afraid of the older gang kids showing up after school, that one morning instead of a lunchbox into his backpack, he put a loaded 9-millimeter. We would spend our time that we'd normally take prepping our cases for months and months for trial down the road by coming up with real solutions to the problems as they presented.
這是我們在波士頓做的。 我們幫助為了養活小孩 而去偷雜貨的女人找工作。 不把打架的受虐青少年 送進成人監獄, 而是確保他接受心理治療 和社區監督。 逃家的女孩為了生活, 在街上賣淫被捕, 她需要安全的地方居住和成長 -- 我們可以幫助她。 我甚至幫助過一位年輕男子, 因為害怕那些比他年紀大, 放學後成群攔阻的幫派份子, 有天早上,他背包裡帶的不是午餐, 而是一把裝滿子彈的九厘米手槍。 取代原本月復一月 準備審判的冗長過程, 我們把時間花在 找出實際可行的辦法, 來解決一個個到來的問題。
Which is the better way to spend our time? How would you prefer your prosecutors to spend theirs? Why are we spending 80 billion dollars on a prison industry that we know is failing, when we could take that money and reallocate it into education, into mental health treatment, into substance abuse treatment and to community investment so we can develop our neighborhoods?
哪一種方式比較值得我們花時間? 你希望你的檢察官 如何運用他們的時間? 為什麼我們要花八百億在監獄 這個我們明明知道失敗的系統上? 我們可以重新分配錢和資源, 用在教育、心理健康治療、 藥物濫用治療、和社區投資上, 以開發我們的社區。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So why should this matter to you? Well, one, we're spending a lot of money. Our money. It costs 109,000 dollars in some states to lock up a teenager for a year, with a 60 percent chance that that person will return to the very same system. That is a terrible return on investment.
這跟你有什麼關係? 第一,我們耗費大把的金錢, 納稅人的錢。 某些州每年花費十萬九千美元 把一個青少年關在監獄裡, 其中60%出獄後會再度入獄。 這是個回報很糟的投資。
Number two: it's the right thing to do. If prosecutors were a part of creating the problem, it's incumbent on us to create a solution and we can do that using other disciplines that have already done the data and research for us.
第二:這是正確、該做的事。 如果檢方是造成問題的一部分, 我們就義不容辭去解決。 有些學門已有大數據、研究過, 我們可以拿來用。
And number three: your voice and your vote can make that happen. The next time there's a local district attorney's election in your jurisdiction, ask candidates these questions. One: What are you doing to make me and my neighbors safer? Two: What data are you collecting, and how are you training your prosecutors to make sure that it's working? And number three: If it's not working for everybody, what are you doing to fix it? If they can't answer the questions, they shouldn't be doing the job.
第三:用你的聲音、選票來實現。 下次在你的選區選舉地方檢察官時, 問問候選人 一:你會做什麼來使鄰居和我更安全? 二:你蒐集些什麼資料? 你如何訓練檢察官,以確認司法起作用? 第三: 如果現況行不通, 你用什麼行動來解決問題? 若他們答不出,就不應擔此職責。
Each one of you that raised your hand at the beginning of this talk is a living, breathing example of the power of opportunity, of intervention, of support and of love. While each of you may have faced your own brand of discipline for whatever malfeasances you committed, barely any of you needed a day in jail to make you the people that you are today -- some of the greatest minds on the planet.
每個在演說開始時舉過手的人, 正親身證明著 機會、介入、支持和愛的大力量。 儘管你們可能已各自為 以往的過犯受過懲處, 但幾乎沒有任何一個需被關入鐵窗 才得以成為今日的你們 -- 世上的頂尖人物。
Every day, thousands of times a day, prosecutors around the United States wield power so great that it can bring about catastrophe as quickly as it can bring about opportunity, intervention, support and yes, even love. Those qualities are the hallmarks of a strong community, and a strong community is a safe one. If our communities are broken, don't let the lawyers that you elect fix them with outdated, inefficient, expensive methods.
美國各地的檢察官 每天數以千次地行使大權, 它能快速地帶來災難, 同樣,也能快速地帶來機會、 介入、 支持, 和愛。 上述素質是強大社區的特點, 而強大的社區是個安全的社區。 如果你的社區殘破, 不要依賴你選出的律師 用過時、低效、昂貴的方式來修復。
Demand more; vote for the prosecutor who's helping people stay out of jail, not putting them in.
要求高一點, 投票給那些幫助人不入獄, 而不是把人關進監獄的檢察官。
Demand better. You deserve it, your children deserve it, the people who are tied up in the system deserve it, but most of all, the people that we are sworn to protect and do justice for demand it.
我們要求要更好。 這是你應得的,你的孩子們應得的, 是淪落在司法系統裡的人應得的, 但最重要的是 我們宣誓要保護的人們所應得的。
We must, we must do better.
我們必須、必須做得更好。
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you.
謝謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)
Thank you very much.
非常感謝。