VOA常速英语2013--私营监狱减少监禁成本引发担忧

Private Prisons Can Reduce Incarceration 1 Costs, But Worry Some 私营监狱减少监禁成本引发担忧

The southern U.S. state of Louisiana has the world's highest incarceration rate. With about one in 90 adults in the prison system, the state is looking for ways to  keep the facilities from overcrowding and incarceration costs from overburdening the budget.  One solution is sending low-risk inmates 3 to cheaper private correctional  centers, an option that has raised the ire of opponents.

For four years, Harry 4 has been serving time in prisons operated by various private companies.

四年来，哈利一直在由不同私营公司管理的几座监狱里过着铁窗生活，He is currently serving time in the Pine Prairie Correctional Center in rural Louisiana.

他目前在路易斯安那州乡村的松原惩教中心服刑。

Harry says he is treated better here than in the previous facility.

哈利表示这里的待遇比原来要好。

“It was hard to go outside.

“想出去透口气都很困难，They fed you in the dorm all the time, you know.

公立监狱一直是把饭送来监舍。

We didn't have no cafeteria to go to, so they brought the food to you.

我们可没有餐厅，所以他们把饭送来。

And then, when it was count time, you'd be sleeping, they'd wake you up out of a dead sleep and make you sit up,” said Harry.

而且往往都是在睡梦中的时候点名，连做个好梦都被他们吵醒，晚睡简直习以为常。”

Warden 5 Terry Hines has worked in private as well as state-run prisons.

特里·海因斯在私立和公立监狱中都曾当过看守。

He said private prisons ease the burden on U.S. taxpayers 7.

他表示私立监狱减轻了美国纳税人的负担。

“I can do it cheaper every day per inmate 2 than the state or the parish can do it every day.

“私立监狱每个囚犯每天的花费比州立和教区监狱便宜。

And for the facilities that have federal contracts, we have shown, we have proven we can do it cheaper than the federal prisons can,” said Hines, warden of Harry's  prison.

而且对于我们这些承接联邦政府合同的设施已经证明，我们比联邦监狱省钱。”

To keep the operational costs down, private companies have a lower budget for each prisoner than the state-run facilities, and their employees have lower wages.

为了降低成本，私人公司给每个囚犯的预算要低于公立监狱，而他们的员工工资工资也比较低。

Mark, also an inmate at the Pine Prairie facility, said private prisons offer fewer programs for their inmates.

曾经也是松原惩教中心囚犯的马克表示私立监狱为囚犯提供的活动比较少。

“Private facilities don't have field work or a lot of them don't have trades, trade schools, see.

“私立监狱没有实地工作机会，而且没有职业培训，或职业学校。

But in a state facility you can take up these trades, you can go work in the fields, you can go work in a barn, like, you can do all different types of jobs.

可是在公立监狱，你可以接受职业培训，参加实地工作，到农场劳动，从事各种不同工作，But here jobs are limited,” said Mark.

可是这里的工作很有限。”

Critics also point out that private prisons work for profit and therefore skew justice system priorities.

批评人士同样指出，以盈利为目的的私立监狱偏离了司法制度的重心。

Diana Kaplan, director of Juvenile 8 Justice Project of Louisiana, an advocacy group, is worried about the poor incentives 9 created by for-profit prisons.

权益机构路易斯安那州青少年司法项目的负责人戴安娜·卡普兰担心营利性监狱的这一不佳激励机制。

“We begin to make criminal justice policies not based on what reduces crime or how do we save taxpayer 6 dollars, but we base criminal justice policy based on what is  going to drive the economic engines of the criminal justice system," said Kaplan.

“我们在制定刑事司法政策的过程中并没有考虑减少犯罪或者节省纳税人的钱，而是被刑事司法系统的经济效益所驱动。”

Louisiana's incarceration rate has doubled in the roughly two decades since the state's first private prisons went into operation.

路易斯安那州第一座私立监狱投入使用20年来，这个州的监禁率上升了一倍。