A few weeks ago a company called Visually emailed me.

幾週前我收到 Visually 公司的來信。

Aand was like: "Hey Hank. If you could do a high-quality, animated video on any issue in the world, what would you choose?"

他說：「嘿 Hank，如果你可以隨心所欲製作一部高品質的動畫影片，你會選擇什麼主題？」

Now that was a hard choice, but I went with incarceration in America, because it is messed up!

雖然很難決擇，但我會選美國的監禁體制，因為它實在太糟糕了！

Now, crime is also messed up.

現在治安也亂得要命。

Bad things happen to good people, and that's terrible, and something should be done about it.

壞事總發生在好人身上，這真的很慘，而我們應該想想解決辦法。

Well, we send people to prison to be punished, and to prevent them from doing bad things again, and to deter others from breaking the law.

所以，我們把罪犯關進監獄，以防止他們再次做壞事，並讓其他人不會有犯罪的念頭。

Punishment, corrections, and deterrence.

這些全藉由懲罰、矯正、及制止的手段達成。

Now we have this habit of thinking of prisoners as something very external to society.

如今，我們習慣把罪犯視為社會體制外的一群人。

After all, there are literal walls between them and society.

畢竟真的有一道牆將他們與世隔絕。

Walls capped with razor wire and watched over by people with guns.

一道砌著利刃鐵網、被人持槍看守的牆。

But millions of prisoners are released each year.

然而每年有數百萬名罪犯得到釋放。

Today's prisoners are tomorrow's neighbors.

今日之囚，明日比鄰而居。

So corrections should probably be the most important piece of the incarceration pie.

這麼說來，矯正應該是監禁體制下最重要的一環。

Unfortunately, it is not.

很不幸地，事實並非如此。

We are, however, really good at punishment.

我們反倒對於懲罰非常在行。

America has about 4% of the world's people and about 25% of the world's incarcerated people.

美國人口約佔全球 4% ，卻有全球 25% 的監獄人口。

We have the highest incarceration rate in the world.

我們的牢獄比例位居全球之冠。

Over the last 30 years, that number has skyrocketed, increasing over 400%.

過去 30 年，監獄人口甚至以 400% 的比例急劇增加。

41% of American juveniles and young adults have been arrested by the time they turn 23.

41% 的美國青少年在 23 歲前都曾被逮補入獄。

Children as young as 13 years old have been sentenced to die in prison, and our prisons violate international standards.

13 歲左右的孩子被判處無期徒刑，且連監禁制度也違反國際規範。

Solitary confinement increases instability and violence in inmates, and is considered by international law to be torture.

單獨監禁會使罪犯情緒不穩及傾向暴力，這是國際公認的虐行。

But in America, it's not regulated by anyone except the prison officials; no judge, no jury.

但在美國卻只靠獄卒管理，沒有任何司法正義的申張。

Arguably the most devastating form of punishment we enact in this country, and yet there is no appeals process.

可說是美國本土最殘酷的刑罰，更別說完全沒有上訴程序。

And you think it's hard to get a job in America?

你覺得在美國工作很難找嗎？

Well, we make it intentionally more difficult to get a job once you have a conviction on your record, not to mention just live your life.

如果你有前科，監禁體制會刻意讓這種情況雪上加霜，更別提只想正常過日子。

Convicts are ineligible for welfare, student loans, public housing, food stamps, and are often socially disconnected from community and family support structures.

囚犯沒有資格取得社會福利、學生貸款、住國宅、領取食物券，在社會上，往往也得不到社會及家庭的支援。

So in addition to have high recidivism rates, they have very high rates of homelessness and suicide.

因此，這除了會導致極高的再犯率之外，他們淪落街頭和自殺率也非常高。

Somewhere along the way, we started to think that being tough on crime meant being tough on criminals.

不知怎麼地，在建立監禁體制的過程中，我們認為打擊犯罪等於嚴懲罪犯。

But that's not the same thing!

但這完全是兩回事！

Punishment is only one piece of a much larger crime reduction pie, and it's an expensive one; with some institutions paying more than $100,000 per year per prisoner.

降低犯罪率是個極大的議題，懲罰只佔其中的一部份，而且所費不貲，有些監獄每年花在個別罪犯身上的費用甚至超過十萬美元。

Long prison sentences have helped to decrease crime, but no more than 25% of the decrease that we've seen can be attributed to incarceration, and it costs far beyond just dollars.

長期監禁雖能幫助降低犯罪率，但就我們的監禁體制而言頂多降低 25%，然而我們付出的不只金錢上的代價。

The cost is to people, to our country, to communities, to families, and to ourselves.

全體人民、國家、社區、家庭，乃至於我們自己都得付出代價。

The policy seems to be, if you've committed a felony, we just give up on you.

我們的監禁體制似乎是，若你犯了重罪，我們就直接放棄你。

These wars on crime, wars on drugs, they are wars on people.

種種罪行與毒品的戰爭，其實都是與人民的戰爭。

The smart political move is to appear tough on crime because crime is scary.

於是聰明的政治操作開始嚴懲罪犯，因為犯罪很可怕。

So we increased minimum sentences, we arrested more people, we sent more of them to prison.

所以我們提高最低服刑年限、逮補更多人、把更多人關入監獄。

That's how we looked tough on crime, but the results are in: it's bad policy!

這是我們嚴懲犯罪的方式，但結果證實，這是個失敗的政策！

It's cruel, it's shortsighted, and to continue this policy of mass incarceration would be foolish.

既殘忍又短視近利，繼續施行大量監禁無疑是愚蠢的決定。

We're living inside of a massive $75 billion per year failed experiment.

我們每年花上 750 億巨款在這個失敗的實驗上。

2010 was the first year in nearly 40 years that the number of incarcerated individuals in America did not increase.

而 2010 年是近 40 年來，美國入監人數首度未增加的一年。

Policy makers are beginning to realize the magnitude of this failure, but there is a long way to go.

政策制定者們開始意識到這次失敗的重要性，儘管如此，我們還有很多進步的空間。

John, I'll see you on Tuesday.

我是 John，我們下週二見。