The drive through the world's most secure prison is beautiful. The federal government's only supermax prison, known as ADX, is 90 miles south of Denver. Standing outside the building, ADX looks like a newish suburban middle school.
開車穿過全世界最嚴密的 監獄,所見相當美麗。 它是聯邦政府唯一的一座 超級監獄,被稱為 ADX, 位在丹佛南方九十哩處。 站在建築物的外面, ADX 看起來像是 有點新的近郊中學。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
The lobby is clean and bright; there's big windows and clear views of the mountains; and a polite front-desk attendant with a kiosk selling travel mugs.
大廳很乾淨,很明亮; 有很大的窗戶,可以 清楚看到外面的山; 還有有禮貌的服務台人員, 和一個小攤子銷售隨行馬克杯。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
On the wall is a large plaque that reads, "The best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." Just past it is a huge framed photo of Alcatraz. And down the stairs, at the end of a long hallway, are 400 men decaying in isolation cells.
牆壁有一塊很大的匾牌,寫著: 「人生能給你的最大獎, 就是有機會可以努力 做值得做的事。」 旁邊是惡魔島聯邦監獄的裱框大照片。 到了樓下,在長廊的盡頭, 有四百名男子,在隔離牢房中腐朽。
I work on cases involving the constitutional rights of prisoners. Now, people have differing views about prisoners' rights. But there's something more people can agree on: torture. The US government says it doesn't use torture, and we condemn other countries, like Iran and North Korea, for their use of torture. But some people think the so-called worst of the worst deserve it: terrorists, mass murderers, the really "bad" people. Now I personally believe that no one deserves to be tortured by the US government. But that's me.
我接的是和囚犯 憲法權利有關的案件。 大家對於囚犯的權利有不同的看法。 但有一點是比較多人能有共識的: 虐待。 美國政府說它不會進行虐待。 我們也會譴責其他國家如伊朗和北韓 採用虐待的行為。 但有些人認為這些 惡人中的惡人是活該: 恐怖分子、殺人魔、 非常「壞」的人。 我個人認為,沒有人活該 應該要被美國政府虐待。 但那是我的看法。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
No matter where you fall, there's a few things I need you to understand before I continue. First, we do torture people here in America, tens of thousands of them every day. It's called solitary confinement. It's done in our names, using our tax dollars, behind closed doors. And as a result, we're undermining the core values of our justice system.
不論你的立場為何,在我繼續 之前有幾點要先讓你了解。 首先,在美國這裡 我們確實會虐待人, 每天有數萬人被虐待。 這種虐待叫做單獨監禁。 以我們的名義,用我們的納稅錢, 把門關起來做這件事。 結果是, 我們在破壞我們 司法體制的核心價值。
Built with state-of-the-art technology, ADX has nearly perfected solitary confinement. Each man spends 23 hours a day alone in a cell the size of a small bathroom. Virtually every aspect of his life occurs in that cell. But aside from sleeping and eating, which he does within an arm's reach of his toilet, there aren't many aspects of life. Correctional officers push food trays through slots in the doors and take the men to solitary exercise cages that are referred to by prisoners and staff alike, without irony, as dog runs. Other than that, these men are locked in cement closets, all day, every day. Two steps forward, two steps back. That's it. They can't see the nearby mountains or any trees -- "nothing living, not so much as a blade of grass," is how one man in ADX described it. Some people report that after years of not looking at anything further than 10 feet away, their eyesight has deteriorated so much that they can't focus on faraway objects anymore.
ADX 是用最先進的技術建造, 做到近乎完美的單獨監禁。 每個人每天有二十三小時單獨 待在小型浴室大小的牢房中。 差不多可說是他人生中的 每個面向都發生在那牢房中。 但,除了在馬桶旁邊 睡覺和吃飯之外, 人生也沒什麼面向了。 獄警會把食物盤從門縫推進去, 並把這些人帶到單獨的運動鐵籠, 囚犯和工作人員把它稱為 遛狗場,沒有諷刺意思。 除此之外, 這些人就被關在水泥室中, 一整天,每一天。 能向前兩步,向後兩步,就這麼大。 他們看不到附近的山或任何樹木—— 「沒有生物,連一片草葉都沒有。」 ADX 中有人這麼描述。 有些人回報,經過數年都沒有 看向任何十呎外的東西, 他們的視力嚴重退化到無法 再聚焦到遠方的物體上了。
The isolation is so deep and profound that one of our clients would lie on the floor of his cell for hours, just hoping to catch a glimpse of someone's feet as they walked past the door of his cell. Another befriended a wasp that flew into his cell, feeding it and talking to it like a friend. Some try to communicate with fellow prisoners by yelling through the shower drains. Still though, many of these men lost their voices after talking with us for just an hour. Their vocal cords were out of practice speaking for that long.
孤立隔離感是如此深刻, 讓我們有位客戶 會在他的牢房地板上躺好幾個小時, 只希望當有人經過他牢房外時, 能瞥見那個人的腳也好。 另一名囚犯和飛進 他牢房的黃蜂交朋友, 餵食牠,把牠當朋友一樣談天。 有些囚犯會嘗試對著淋浴 排水管大吼來與其他囚犯溝通。 不過仍有許多囚犯才和我們 談一個小時,就沒聲音了。 他們的聲帶太久沒有用來 做那麼長時間的談話。
We know the impact of long-term isolation is devastating. This borders on common sense. It's why harsh prison systems and torture regimes routinely use solitary as a form of severe punishment. And why none of us would tolerate having a loved one, like a parent or a child, locked alone in a small bathroom for days, let alone years. Or decades.
我們知道長期隔離的衝擊非常巨大。 這簡直是常識。 這就是為什麼嚴厲的監獄體制 和虐待方式都經常會採用 單獨監禁當作一種嚴重的懲罰。 這就是為什麼我們沒有人 能容忍讓家人, 比如父母或孩子, 被單獨鎖在小型浴室中 好幾天,更不用說好幾年, 或好幾十年了。
In the course of representing that first client at ADX, we learned about another man, Tommy Silverstein, who the Federal Bureau of Prisons put in solitary confinement under a "no human contact" order in 1983, after he killed a corrections officer. Tommy was 31 years old. Now he's 66. He's been in solitary confinement for 35 years. Struggling to find the words to capture his experience of ADX, Tommy, who has become an accomplished artist, drew it instead.
在代表第一位 ADX 客戶的過程中, 我們聽說了另一個人, 湯米‧西爾維斯汀, 他在 1983 年被聯邦監獄管理局 下令「不得與人接觸」, 關到單獨監禁室裡, 因為他殺了一名獄警。 湯米當時三十一歲。 現在他六十六歲了。 他被單獨監禁了三十五年。 湯米很難用言語來描述 他在 ADX 的經歷, 他變成了很棒的藝術家, 改用畫畫來表達。
Unless we start to change how we treat prisoners in this country, he'll probably be there for the rest of his life.
除非我們開始改變我們 在美國對待囚犯的方式, 否則他剩下的人生 可能都得在那裡渡過。
Both John McCain and Nelson Mandela said that of all the horrors they suffered in prison, solitary confinement was the worst. That's because solitary puts people at risk of losing their grasp on who they are, of how and whether they're connected to a larger world. As psychologist Dr. Craig Haney explains, that's because human identity is socially created. We understand ourselves through our relationships with other people. Solitary confinement can make you change what you think about yourself. It can make you doubt whether you even have a self. Some people in solitary aren't even sure they exist, so they'll mouth off to a corrections officer and end up getting shackled or beaten. But at least then, they know they exist. Over time, some of the men in ADX break down in obvious ways, like banging their heads on the walls of their cells or smearing themselves with feces. Or attempting suicide, some of them successfully. Many people cut themselves just to feel the pain that keeps them tethered to the real world. Others adjust, showing no outward sign of mental illness.
約翰‧麥肯和尼爾森‧曼德拉都說過, 在他們在監獄遇過的慘事當中, 單獨監禁是最糟糕的。 那是因為單獨監禁會讓人面臨 再也認不清自己是誰的風險, 不再知道他們要如何能、 是否能和更大的世界連結。 心理學家克雷格‧哈尼解釋說, 那是因為人的身分認同 是靠社交來建立的。 我們透過我們與他人的關係 來了解我們自己。 單獨監禁能讓你改變 你對自我的看法。 它能讓你懷疑你是否有自我。 有些被單獨監禁的人 甚至不確定他們是否存在, 所以他們會大罵獄警, 結果是被上鐐銬或者被打一頓。 但至少那時他們 會知道自己是存在的。 隨時間,ADX 的一些囚犯 會崩潰得相當明顯, 比如用頭去撞牢房的牆壁, 或者用排泄物塗抹自己, 或者嘗試自殺,有些人成功了。 許多人會割傷自己,因為感受 痛苦能讓他們與世界保持連結。 其他人會調適, 外在看不出心理疾病的徵兆。
But there's grave harm in the adjustment itself. That's because the experience of long-term isolation can paradoxically lead to social withdrawal. At first, people are starved for human contact, but over time, it becomes disorienting, even frightening. They can't handle it anymore. All of this amounts to a prolonged social death. The men in ADX are stuck in suspended animation. Not really part of this world, they're not really part of any world that's fully and tangibly human. It's for all of these reasons that international human rights law prohibits the use of long-term solitary confinement. In fact, the UN has called on governments to ban the use of solitary for more than 15 days. As of today, Tommy Silverstein has been in solitary for 12,815 days.
但光是調整本身 就會帶來很深的傷害。 那是因為,矛盾的是, 長期孤立隔離會導致社會退縮。 一開始,人會很渴望要和人接觸, 但隨時間過去, 與人接觸會變得讓人迷惘、害怕。 他們再也無法應付與人接觸。 這一切加起來,就會形成 長久的社會性死亡。 ADX 裡的人,是被困在假死狀態。 不算是這個世界的一部分, 他們不屬於任何可觸及 且完全人類的世界。 因為所有這些理由, 國際人權法律禁止 使用長期單獨監禁。 事實上, 聯合國號召各國政府禁止使用 十五天以上的單獨監禁。 截至今天, 湯米‧西爾維斯汀已經被 單獨監禁了 12,815 天。
Now in judging other countries' human rights records, the US State Department has called the use of long-term solitary a human rights violation. In 2009, for example, State Department condemned Israel, Iran, Indonesia and Yemen for their use of solitary. But we allow it to happen on our own soil. When a prison is located in the US instead of China, when it's run by the federal government and not some rogue sheriff, when it has state-of-the-art technology and gleaming floors, not overcrowded cells and decrepit facilities, it's harder to believe that torture happens there. But it's important to entertain the idea that, sometimes, this too is what torture looks like.
在評斷其他國家的人權記錄時, 美國國務院把使用 長期單獨監禁稱為違反人權。 比如,2009 年, 國務院譴責以色列、伊朗、 印尼,以及葉門, 因為它們採用單獨監禁。 但我們卻容許這種事 發生在我們的國土上。 當監獄是位在美國而不是中國, 當它是由聯邦政府來營運, 而非某個惡棍警長, 當它有最先進的科技 和閃閃發光的地板, 而非過度擁擠的牢房和老舊的設備, 就更難相信虐囚會發生在那裡。 但,重要的是要知道,有時, 這也是虐囚的一種形式。
As a civil rights lawyer, I believe it's important to ensure that people, even those convicted of terrible crimes, aren't tortured by our government. And if this talk were a movie, I'd tell you next about how we fought and fought and eventually won. But this isn't a movie. So I'll tell you, instead, about how deeply this injustice is hidden. How difficult it is to expose it, and why it's important that we do.
身為民權律師, 我認為,重要的是要確保人民, 包括犯下可怕罪行的人, 不會被我們的政府虐待。 如果這場演說是電影, 我接著就會告訴各位我們如何 不斷奮戰,最後獲得勝利。 但這不是電影。 所以,我要告訴各位的反而是 這樣的不公藏得有多深、 讓它曝光有多困難, 以及為什麼這麼做很重要。
You'd think that lawyers, people who work in the justice system, would know what happens in our prisons. But I'm a lawyer, and I live less than two hours away from ADX. And until we went to see that first client, I didn't know anything about it. I don't think that's an accident. ADX walls itself off from public scrutiny. In the 25 years since it opened, it's allowed only a single visit by human rights organizations. Journalists are routinely denied entry. Mail is censored. And even when rare family visits occur, they're monitored by an unseen government official who can cut the visit off without notice if he thinks that the prisoner is talking in too much detail about the conditions in ADX.
你會認為律師、 在司法體制中工作的人, 會知道我們的監獄中發生的事。 但我是律師,我住的地方 離 ADX 不到兩小時路程。 而在我們去會見第一位客戶之前, 我都完全不知情。 我不認為我的不知情是意外。 ADX 用牆把它自己 和公眾監督隔開。 從它營運以來的二十五年間, 只容許過一次人權組織的參訪。 記者被拒絕進入是常態。 郵件會被檢查。 就算有很罕見的家人來訪, 接見過程也會被 隱藏的政府官員監視, 他不用通知就可直接中止接見, 只要他認為囚犯談到太多 ADX 狀況的細節,就會這麼做。
In China, in Russia, they keep out the human rights observers, keep out the media, keep out the UN. And so do we. ADX is, in the words of one journalist, "a black site on American soil."
在中國、在俄國,他們會 阻擋人權觀察者進入, 阻擋媒體進入,阻擋聯合國進入。 我們也會這樣做。 引用一位記者的說法,ADX 是 「美國領土上的一個黑點。」
We know that secrecy is a hallmark of places that torture. But after years of shining a light, we now know more about the conditions in Guantanamo than we do at ADX. Five years ago, when there was a hunger strike and force-feeding at Guantanamo, the same thing was happening at ADX. But you probably didn't hear about it because the government gagged family members and lawyers from talking about it.
我們知道, 進行虐待的地方都有 一個特色,就是保密。 但,經過多年努力翻出真相, 我們現在對關塔那摩的狀況 了解得比 ADX 更多。 五年前,關塔那摩發生 絕食和強迫餵食, ADX 也發生了同樣的事。 但各位可能沒聽說, 因為政府不允許家人 和律師談論此事。
But here's the thing: the American criminal justice system is supposed to be transparent. And before someone gets sent to prison, that's largely true. Legislators meet in public to debate and define the laws that prohibit criminal conduct. Citizens in our community serve as jurors on criminal trials. And if you want to watch a trial, the courtroom doors are wide open. After the trial, though, our commitment to transparency ends. With the prison door securely shut, what happens behind prison walls stays behind prison walls. And without the scrutiny of the public gaze, the darkness festers.
但,重點來了: 美國的司法體制應該要是透明的。 在人被送進監獄之前, 大致上也都是透明的。 立法者公開見面,辯論 和制訂法律來禁止犯罪行為。 我們社區中的公民擔任 司法審判的陪審團成員。 如果你想要去看審判, 法庭的門都是大開的。 不過,審判之後,我們對於 透明度的承諾就告終了。 監獄大門嚴密緊閉, 監獄牆壁內發生的事 就留在監獄牆壁內。 沒有大眾的關注來監督, 黑暗就會日漸惡化。
Other than execution, incarceration is the most intrusive power of the state: the deprivation of citizens' liberty. But no government institution is more opaque and less accountable than prison. Even though prisons are supported by tax payers and return 95 percent of their residents to our communities. It's that secrecy that allows the ADX to disappear people.
除了處死刑之外,監禁 是國家最侵入式的權力: 剝奪公民的自由。 但沒有任何政府機構比監獄 更不透明、更不負責了。 雖然監獄是由納稅人來資助, 且有 95% 的住民會返回社區。 是那種保密性, 容許ADX 可以讓人消失。
And so we have an obligation, said Justice Kennedy, as a democracy and as a people, "we should know what happens after the prisoner is taken away." The prison system is the concern and responsibility of every citizen. This is your justice system. These are your prisons. Torture happens in the dark. And so we need to embrace the admonition that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Not only because we need to know what happens inside ADX, but because the knowing itself can create change.
所以,甘迺迪大法官說我們有義務, 身為民主國家,身為民族, 「我們應該要知道當囚犯 被帶走之後會發生什麼事。」 監獄體制是每位公民 該關心的事以及責任。 這是你的司法體制。 這些是你的監獄。 虐待發生在黑暗之處。 所以我們應該要擁抱這段告誡: 陽光是最好的消毒劑。 不僅是因為我們需要知道 在 ADX 裡面發生了什麼事, 也因為「知道」本身就能造成改變。
There's an axiom in physics called the uncertainty principle. It teaches that the mere fact of observation can alter, will alter, the subatomic reaction being observed. In other words, watching something affects its course. In a democracy like the US, prisons are administered in our name and on our behalf. The conditions in ADX implicate our tax dollars, public safety and, most of all, our shared belief in the inherent dignity of every human being. We have an obligation to bear witness.
有一條物理公理,叫做測不準原理。 它說明的是:單單只是觀察, 就可能改變,也會改變。 觀察到的亞原子反應。 換言之, 光是看著某件事就能影響它的過程。 在美國這樣的民主國家裡, 政府用我們的名義 代表我們經營監獄。 ADX 的狀況牽連到我們的納稅錢、 公共安全, 以及,最重要的,我們對於 每個人天生尊嚴的共同信念。 我們有義務要做見證。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)