On the path that American children travel to adulthood, two institutions oversee the journey. The first is the one we hear a lot about: college. Some of you may remember the excitement that you felt when you first set off for college. Some of you may be in college right now and you're feeling this excitement at this very moment.
美國兒童在成長的過程中, 有兩種機構發揮著守望的功能: 第一種是我們經常聽到的:大學。 你們當中有些人可能還記得, 當你收到錄取通知書的那一刻, 自己有多麼興奮。 有些人可能現在正在上大學, 此刻你正感到無比的興奮。
College has some shortcomings. It's expensive; it leaves young people in debt. But all in all, it's a pretty good path. Young people emerge from college with pride and with great friends and with a lot of knowledge about the world. And perhaps most importantly, a better chance in the labor market than they had before they got there.
當然大學也有一些不足之處, 比如學費太貴,導致年輕人負债累累。 但是整體來說, 大學是一條相當不錯的道路。 年輕人從大學畢業,帶著自豪, 結交好朋友, 同時也學到許多有關世界的知識。 或許更重要的是, 對找工作來說, 他們比上大學前有了更好的機會。
Today I want to talk about the second institution overseeing the journey from childhood to adulthood in the United States. And that institution is prison. Young people on this journey are meeting with probation officers instead of with teachers. They're going to court dates instead of to class. Their junior year abroad is instead a trip to a state correctional facility. And they're emerging from their 20s not with degrees in business and English, but with criminal records.
今天,我要談談另一種 在美國守望著孩童成長過程的機構, 那就是監獄。 在監獄裡,年輕人遇到的是觀護人, 而不是老師。 他們得按時去法院報到,而不是教室。 別人在大三出國旅遊時, 他們的旅途是去州立感化院。 當他們在20多歲時, 他們拿到的不是企管或英文的學位, 而是犯罪前科紀錄。
This institution is also costing us a lot, about 40,000 dollars a year to send a young person to prison in New Jersey. But here, taxpayers are footing the bill and what kids are getting is a cold prison cell and a permanent mark against them when they come home and apply for work.
這個機構也花費許多公帑, 在紐澤西州, 將一個年輕人送進監獄的花費, 大約是一年4萬美元, 但這筆錢是納稅人付的。 而這些孩子得到的是冰冷的監獄牢房, 以及在他們出獄返家後,或是找工作時, 無法抹除的永久印記。
There are more and more kids on this journey to adulthood than ever before in the United States and that's because in the past 40 years, our incarceration rate has grown by 700 percent. I have one slide for this talk. Here it is. Here's our incarceration rate, about 716 people per 100,000 in the population. Here's the OECD countries.
在美國,有愈來愈多的孩子 步上這條成長的道路, 因為在過去的40年, 我們的監禁率,成長了百分之七百。 我為這場演講製作了一張投影片。 就是這張。 這是我們的監禁率。 每十萬人當中有716人入獄服刑。 這是OECD經濟合作暨發展組織 會員國的監禁率圖表。 [圖表說明] 美國的監禁率全世界最高, 大約每十萬人有716人入獄服刑。
What's more, it's poor kids that we're sending to prison, too many drawn from African-American and Latino communities so that prison now stands firmly between the young people trying to make it and the fulfillment of the American Dream. The problem's actually a bit worse than this 'cause we're not just sending poor kids to prison, we're saddling poor kids with court fees, with probation and parole restrictions, with low-level warrants, we're asking them to live in halfway houses and on house arrest, and we're asking them to negotiate a police force that is entering poor communities of color, not for the purposes of promoting public safety, but to make arrest counts, to line city coffers.
更重要的是, 我們將貧窮的孩子們送進監獄。 他們多數來自非裔美籍和拉丁裔社區。 現在,監獄阻擋了這些想要成功, 以及實現美國夢的年輕人。 問題其實更為嚴重, 因為我們不只是將貧窮的孩子關起來, 我們還讓這些孩子負擔法庭費用, 用緩刑和假釋來限制他們, 或是對他們發布輕度通緝。 我們讓他們住在中途之家 或是進行居家監禁。 我們讓他們屈服於警察勢力 進入到有色人種的貧窮社區裏, 目的不是為了要加強公共安全, 而是為了讓逮捕人數達到要求, 以增加市政府收入。
This is the hidden underside to our historic experiment in punishment: young people worried that at any moment, they will be stopped, searched and seized. Not just in the streets, but in their homes, at school and at work.
這是我們一直以來所進行的懲罰性實驗。 隱藏在背後的陰暗面是: 年輕人擔心,他們隨時可能 被攔下來、被搜查、被逮捕。 不只是在街上如此,在家裡、 在學校、或在工作時都有可能。
I got interested in this other path to adulthood when I was myself a college student attending the University of Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. Penn sits within a historic African-American neighborhood. So you've got these two parallel journeys going on simultaneously: the kids attending this elite, private university, and the kids from the adjacent neighborhood, some of whom are making it to college, and many of whom are being shipped to prison.
我開始對這一條成長的道路感到興趣, 當我還是賓州大學學生的時候, 那時是在2000年年初。 賓州大學位於一個 歷史上非裔美人居住的地區。 在那裡,可以看到這兩條平行的成長道路: 一邊的孩子,進入精英的的私人大學就讀, 住在另一邊鄰近社區的孩子們, 雖然有一些也進了大學, 但是大多數的孩子卻被送進監獄裏。
In my sophomore year, I started tutoring a young woman who was in high school who lived about 10 minutes away from the university. Soon, her cousin came home from a juvenile detention center. He was 15, a freshman in high school. I began to get to know him and his friends and family, and I asked him what he thought about me writing about his life for my senior thesis in college. This senior thesis became a dissertation at Princeton and now a book.
在我大二那年, 我開始為一個高中的女孩補習。 她住在距離這個大學10分鐘路程的地方。 不久,他的一位表弟 從少年拘留所回到家裡。 他當時15歲,剛就讀高中一年級。 我開始認識他、他的朋友以及家人。 我問他,我是否可以在大四的論文裡 描寫有關他的故事。 這篇大四所寫的論文,後來也成為 我在普林斯頓大學的博士論文, 以及我所寫的一本書。
By the end of my sophomore year, I moved into the neighborhood and I spent the next six years
在我大二那年結束時, 我搬到那個社區居住, 在接下來的六年裏,
trying to understand what young people were facing as they came of age. The first week I spent in this neighborhood, I saw two boys, five and seven years old, play this game of chase, where the older boy ran after the other boy. He played the cop. When the cop caught up to the younger boy, he pushed him down, handcuffed him with imaginary handcuffs, took a quarter out of the other child's pocket, saying, "I'm seizing that." He asked the child if he was carrying any drugs or if he had a warrant. Many times, I saw this game repeated, sometimes children would simply give up running, and stick their bodies flat against the ground with their hands above their heads, or flat up against a wall. Children would yell at each other, "I'm going to lock you up, I'm going to lock you up and you're never coming home!" Once I saw a six-year-old child pull another child's pants down and try to do a cavity search.
我試著了解年輕人 在成長過程所要面對的事物。 我住在那裡的第一週, 我看到兩個男孩,分別是五歲和七歲, 他們正在玩追逐遊戲。 那個大男孩追著另一個男孩。 大男孩扮演警察。 當這個警察追到小男孩時, 他將他推倒在地, 假裝用手銬銬上他的手, 從他的口袋拿出一個25分的硬幣, 他說:「我要拿走這個硬幣」。 他問那個小孩是否身上有毒品, 或者正在被通緝? 我經常看到孩子們玩這個遊戲。 有時候,孩子會放棄逃跑, 身體直直地趴在地上, 將手舉在頭上,或將手靠在牆壁上。 孩子們會彼此大叫, 「我要把你關起來。 我要把你關起來, 讓你永遠不能回家!」 有一次我看到一個六歲小孩 拉下另一個小孩的褲子, 試著對他做「體腔檢查」。
In the first 18 months that I lived in this neighborhood, I wrote down every time I saw any contact between police and people that were my neighbors. So in the first 18 months, I watched the police stop pedestrians or people in cars, search people, run people's names, chase people through the streets, pull people in for questioning, or make an arrest every single day, with five exceptions. Fifty-two times, I watched the police break down doors, chase people through houses or make an arrest of someone in their home. Fourteen times in this first year and a half, I watched the police punch, choke, kick, stomp on or beat young men after they had caught them.
我住在那個社區的前18個月, 我紀錄下每一次我所看到 警察和我的鄰居之間的接觸過程。 在那18個月當中, 我看著警察攔下行人 或是車子裡的人, 對他們搜查,問他們的名字, 在街上追著他們, 將他們帶回去問話,或是逮捕他們。 這些事每天都在上演, 只有五天平安無事。 總共有52次,我看到警察破門而入, 穿過房子追著人們, 或者在他們的家裡抓人。 在一年半內有14次, 我看到警察在逮捕年輕人後, 對他們打、嗆、踢、踩或揍。
Bit by bit, I got to know two brothers, Chuck and Tim. Chuck was 18 when we met, a senior in high school. He was playing on the basketball team and making C's and B's. His younger brother, Tim, was 10. And Tim loved Chuck; he followed him around a lot, looked to Chuck to be a mentor. They lived with their mom and grandfather in a two-story row home with a front lawn and a back porch. Their mom was struggling with addiction all while the boys were growing up. She never really was able to hold down a job for very long. It was their grandfather's pension that supported the family, not really enough to pay for food and clothes and school supplies for growing boys. The family was really struggling.
後來,我認識了兩兄弟, 恰克 和 提姆。 我遇到恰克時,他18歲, 就讀高中四年級。 他是籃球隊的隊員,成績有C有B。 他的弟弟提姆,那時10歲。 提姆很愛恰克, 他總是跟在恰克屁股後面, 視哥哥為偶像。 他們和母親、祖父居住在 一座兩層樓的連棟房屋裡, 房屋前有草地,後有陽台。 在他們的成長過程裡, 他們的母親一直有吸毒問題。 她沒有長期穩定的工作, 他們依靠祖父的退休金生活。 那筆退休金並不足以支付 成長中男孩所需的食物和衣服, 以及學費開銷。 那個家庭實在過得很幸苦。
So when we met, Chuck was a senior in high school. He had just turned 18. That winter, a kid in the schoolyard called Chuck's mom a crack whore. Chuck pushed the kid's face into the snow and the school cops charged him with aggravated assault. The other kid was fine the next day, I think it was his pride that was injured more than anything.
我認識他們時,恰克在讀高中四年級。 他剛滿18歲。 那個冬天,一個學校的孩子 辱罵恰克的母親是"吸毒婊子"。 恰克將那個孩子的臉壓到雪裡, 校警以重度攻擊罪名起訴他。 那個被打的孩子,其實第二天就沒事了, 我想主要是他的自尊心受到傷害。
But anyway, since Chuck was 18, this agg. assault case sent him to adult county jail on State Road in northeast Philadelphia, where he sat, unable to pay the bail -- he couldn't afford it -- while the trial dates dragged on and on and on through almost his entire senior year. Finally, near the end of this season, the judge on this assault case threw out most of the charges and Chuck came home with only a few hundred dollars' worth of court fees hanging over his head. Tim was pretty happy that day.
但是,由於恰克已經年滿18歲, 他因為重度攻擊罪名, 被關進郡立的成人監獄。 這所監獄位於費城東北邊的州立公路上。 他因為無法付出假釋金而被關著 -- 他根本負擔不起 -- 他的出庭日期被一拖再拖, 幾乎拖延了他整個高中四年級。 最後,在這個季節快要結束前, 審理這個傷害案的法官 駁回了大多數的控告, 恰克可以回家了, 卻也欠下數百美元的訴訟費債務。 提姆那天很高興。
The next fall, Chuck tried to re-enroll as a senior, but the school secretary told him that he was then 19 and too old to be readmitted. Then the judge on his assault case issued him a warrant for his arrest because he couldn't pay the 225 dollars in court fees that came due a few weeks after the case ended. Then he was a high school dropout living on the run.
隔年秋天,恰克要返校重讀高四, 但是學校秘書告訴他, 由於他已經19歲了, 超過高四的就學年齡,無法復學。 接著,審理恰克傷害案的法官 對他發佈一份通緝, 因為他沒有支付225美元的訴訟費用。 通緝令在他的案件審理結束後的 幾個星期發出。 當時,他被高中退學, 而且還要躲避通緝,
Tim's first arrest came later that year after he turned 11. Chuck had managed to get his warrant lifted and he was on a payment plan for the court fees and he was driving Tim to school in his girlfriend's car. So a cop pulls them over, runs the car, and the car comes up as stolen in California. Chuck had no idea where in the history of this car it had been stolen. His girlfriend's uncle bought it from a used car auction in northeast Philly. Chuck and Tim had never been outside of the tri-state, let alone to California. But anyway, the cops down at the precinct charged Chuck with receiving stolen property. And then a juvenile judge, a few days later, charged Tim, age 11, with accessory to receiving a stolen property and then he was placed on three years of probation. With this probation sentence hanging over his head,
提姆在那一年後期,第一次被警察逮捕, 那時他才剛滿11歲。 恰克後來被解除通緝, 因為他用分期付款來支付訴訟費用。 有一天,他開著女朋友的車子 載提姆去學校, 一位警察攔住他們,盤查他們的車, 結果那是一輛在加州失竊的贓車。 恰克並不知道,這輛車曾經被偷, 那是他的女朋友的叔叔, 在費城東北區向一位中古車商買的。 恰克和提姆從來沒有離開過 鄰近三個州的範圍, 更不用說到過加州。 但是,管轄當地的警察 以收受贓物的罪名起訴恰克。 接著幾天之後,一位主管少年案件的法官 起訴了11歲的提姆, 罪名是收受贓物罪的共犯, 並且判處三年的緩刑。 因為這個緩刑的判決,
Chuck sat his little brother down and began teaching him how to run from the police. They would sit side by side on their back porch looking out into the shared alleyway and Chuck would coach Tim how to spot undercover cars, how to negotiate a late-night police raid, how and where to hide.
恰克開始教他的弟弟 如何躲避警察。 他們比肩坐在家裡的後陽台, 對著公共的巷道, 恰克教提姆如何辨別便衣警察的車子, 如何避開深夜警察的盤查, 以及去哪裡躲藏。
I want you to imagine for a second what Chuck and Tim's lives would be like if they were living in a neighborhood where kids were going to college, not prison. A neighborhood like the one I got to grow up in. Okay, you might say. But Chuck and Tim, kids like them, they're committing crimes! Don't they deserve to be in prison? Don't they deserve to be living in fear of arrest? Well, my answer would be no. They don't. And certainly not for the same things that other young people with more privilege are doing with impunity. If Chuck had gone to my high school, that schoolyard fight would have ended there, as a schoolyard fight. It never would have become an aggravated assault case. Not a single kid that I went to college with has a criminal record right now. Not a single one. But can you imagine how many might have if the police had stopped those kids and searched their pockets for drugs as they walked to class? Or had raided their frat parties in the middle of the night?
我要你們想像一下, 恰克和提姆過著什麼樣的生活? 如果他們居住在 孩子們都能上大學的地區, 而不是被送進監獄。 就像是我從小到大所居住的社區。 好吧,你會說, 但是像恰克和提姆這樣的孩子, 他們還是有犯罪啊! 他們不應該關在監獄嗎? 他們害怕被逮捕,難道不是應得的嗎? 好,我的回答是:「不」。 他們不應該如此被對待。 尤其他們所做的事, 和那些住在優渥環境的年輕人一樣, 但是後者卻不會受罰。 如果恰克進入我所就讀的高中, 他在學校內的打架事件,不會擴大到校外, 就只是當作校園事件處理。 這樣的行為並不會演變成重度傷害罪。 我有許多大學同學, 到現在沒有任何一位有犯罪紀錄。 一個都沒有。 但是你可以想像: 如果警察把他們攔下來, 搜查他們的口袋是否有毒品, 會有多少人因此留下犯罪紀錄? 或者在半夜,到他們的聚會進行臨檢?
Okay, you might say. But doesn't this high incarceration rate partly account for our really low crime rate? Crime is down. That's a good thing. Totally, that is a good thing. Crime is down. It dropped precipitously in the '90s and through the 2000s. But according to a committee of academics convened by the National Academy of Sciences last year, the relationship between our historically high incarceration rates and our low crime rate is pretty shaky. It turns out that the crime rate goes up and down irrespective of how many young people we send to prison.
好,你可能會說, 難道不是因為提高監禁率, 才降低了犯罪率嗎? 能降低犯罪率,當然是件好事。 總體而言,那是件好事,犯罪率降低了。 在1990和2000年之間,犯罪率明顯地降低。 但是,根據去年由美國國家科學院舉辦的 一場學術性會議結果, 過去我們的高監禁率 與低犯罪率之間的關係,非常微弱。 也就是說,犯罪率的高低 與年輕人被關在監獄的數量無關。
We tend to think about justice in a pretty narrow way: good and bad, innocent and guilty. Injustice is about being wrongfully convicted. So if you're convicted of something you did do, you should be punished for it. There are innocent and guilty people, there are victims and there are perpetrators. Maybe we could think a little bit more broadly than that.
我們常常用狹隘的觀點來看待正義: 只有好與壞,無辜和有罪。 錯誤判決並不等於正義。 如果你是因為確實做了壞事而被判有罪, 你是應該受到懲罰。 但是,有無辜的人和有罪的人, 有被害人,有肇事者。 或許我們可以有更寬廣的思維。
Right now, we're asking kids who live in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, who have the least amount of family resources, who are attending the country's worst schools, who are facing the toughest time in the labor market, who are living in neighborhoods where violence is an everyday problem, we're asking these kids to walk the thinnest possible line -- to basically never do anything wrong.
現在,我們如何看待這些 住在最貧困環境裡的小孩? 他們缺乏家庭的資源, 他們就讀郡裡最差的學校, 他們在找工作時,面對最艱困的情境, 他們所居住的環境,每天都有暴力事件, 我們讓這些孩子, 走在最狹窄的道路上 -- 就是基本上,不可以犯任何過錯。
Why are we not providing support to young kids facing these challenges? Why are we offering only handcuffs, jail time and this fugitive existence? Can we imagine something better? Can we imagine a criminal justice system that prioritizes recovery, prevention, civic inclusion, rather than punishment? (Applause) A criminal justice system that acknowledges the legacy of exclusion that poor people of color in the U.S. have faced and that does not promote and perpetuate those exclusions. (Applause) And finally, a criminal justice system that believes in black young people, rather than treating black young people as the enemy to be rounded up. (Applause)
這些孩子面臨困難時, 為何我們不給予支持? 為什麼我們給他們的只是逮捕, 入獄,或是不斷逃亡的日子? 難道我們不能想到更好的解決方式嗎? 我們能否設想一個重視復原、預防, 以及公民包容的刑事司法系統, 而不是只能強調懲罰? (鼓掌) 設想一個刑事司法系統 願意承認在美國歷史上, 曾經排斥有色人種, 並且不再促進和延續這種排斥觀點。 (鼓掌) 最後,設想一個 相信黑人青年的刑事司法系統, 而不是將這些黑人青年 當作是敵人一樣加以逮捕。 (鼓掌)
The good news is that we already are. A few years ago, Michelle Alexander wrote "The New Jim Crow," which got Americans to see incarceration as a civil rights issue of historic proportions in a way they had not seen it before. President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have come out very strongly on sentencing reform, on the need to address racial disparity in incarceration. We're seeing states throw out Stop and Frisk as the civil rights violation that it is. We're seeing cities and states decriminalize possession of marijuana. New York, New Jersey and California have been dropping their prison populations, closing prisons, while also seeing a big drop in crime. Texas has gotten into the game now, also closing prisons, investing in education. This curious coalition is building from the right and the left, made up of former prisoners and fiscal conservatives, of civil rights activists and libertarians, of young people taking to the streets to protest police violence against unarmed black teenagers, and older, wealthier people -- some of you are here in the audience -- pumping big money into decarceration initiatives In a deeply divided Congress, the work of reforming our criminal justice system is just about the only thing that the right and the left are coming together on.
好消息是,我們已經在做了。 幾年前,蜜雪兒.亞歷山大寫了 "The New Jim Crow“ 這本書, 它讓美國民眾 採用和以往不同的方式 將"監禁"視為一項重要的人權議題。 歐巴馬總統和檢察總長 Eric Holder 對於量刑改革 以及監禁的種族歧視問題 非常重視。 我們看到一些州廢除了「攔檢」和「搜查」 因為這些行為違反了人權。 我們看到一些城市和州 不再將持有大麻視為犯罪。 在紐約州、紐澤西州和加州, 正在減少囚犯人數,關閉監獄, 同時也看到犯罪率大幅降低。 德州也開始加入改革, 關閉一些監獄,轉而投資教育。 有一些令人驚訝的組織, 由社會各階層人士共同組成, 其中包括了更生人和財政保守派, 人權鬥士和自由主義者, 有些年輕人走上街頭, 抗議警察以暴力對付 手無寸鐵的黑人青年, 除此之外,還有許多年長,富有的人 -- 你們有些正坐在觀眾席裡 -- 熱心捐款贊助反監禁行動。 在意見分歧的國會裡, 改革現有刑事司法系統的工作 成為無論左派或右派議員 唯一彼此有共識的議題。
I did not think I would see this political moment in my lifetime. I think many of the people who have been working tirelessly to write about the causes and consequences of our historically high incarceration rates did not think we would see this moment in our lifetime. The question for us now is, how much can we make of it? How much can we change?
我從未曾想過, 在有生之年可以看到這一刻。 我想到,有許多人竭盡心力 在探討史上高監禁率的原因和結果時, 他們也未曾想過 會在有生之年見證這個時刻。 現在我們的問題是, 我們能因此學到什麼? 我們能改變多少?
I want to end with a call to young people, the young people attending college and the young people struggling to stay out of prison or to make it through prison and return home. It may seem like these paths to adulthood are worlds apart, but the young people participating in these two institutions conveying us to adulthood, they have one thing in common: Both can be leaders in the work of reforming our criminal justice system. Young people have always been leaders in the fight for equal rights, the fight for more people to be granted dignity and a fighting chance at freedom. The mission for the generation of young people coming of age in this, a sea-change moment, potentially, is to end mass incarceration and build a new criminal justice system, emphasis on the word justice.
最後,我要向年輕人呼籲, 無論你是正在讀大學的年輕人, 還是努力想要離開監獄的年輕人, 或者即將服完刑期返家的年輕人。 這些長大成人的道路天差地遠, 但是經由這兩種機構而成長的年輕人 讓我們所看到 他們的共同點是: 他們都可以成為 改革刑事司法系統的領導者。 在爭取平權的戰鬥中, 年輕人一直扮演著領導的角色。 這是為了替更多的人爭取尊嚴, 以及爭取自由的機會。 這一代年輕人的使命, 在這個急劇變化的時刻, 很有可能實現的 是結束大規模的監禁, 並且建立一個嶄新的 強調「公平正義」的刑事司法系統。
Thanks.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)