美国国家公共电台 NPR Trespass, Jail, Repeat: How One Man Has Spent 575 Days in Jail

 

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

In Nashua, N.H., Michael Treadwell lives on the streets. He has schizophrenia. And as New Hampshire Public Radio's Emily Corwin reports, when people like him don't get the help they need, local taxpayers¹ can end up with a hefty bill.

EMILY CORWIN, BYLINE²: I find Michael Treadwell in the back of a courtroom. He's wearing a windbreaker and work boots. And he's leaning his elbows on his knees. At first, it looks like he's chewing gum. Later when we talk, I discover he isn't chewing gum. He's chewing his own gums. Michael Treadwell doesn't have teeth.

MICHAEL TREADWELL: When you live in a town like Nashua, there's not a lot of homelessness there. And it kind of like focuses and puts you in the spotlight³, especially if you drink alcohol and stuff.

CORWIN: I've been looking for Treadwell since I came across his criminal record. Doing the math, I figured over the last six years, Hillsborough County taxpayers had spent $63,000 keeping him in jail on charges like trespassing⁵ and disorderly conduct. For years now, his life has looked like this - trespass⁴ in an apartment building, spend 30 days in jail; bother restaurant customers, 42 days in jail; panhandle aggressively, 30 days in jail. At the courthouse, I watched him plead guilty to public urination. Then we take a walk in the rain through the city.

M. TREADWELL: People kill homeless people, violence and everything else, you know? It can be a very dangerous life to live in, you know? I don't suggest jail life as an alternative. But no - no kind of life, you know what I'm saying?

CORWIN: When you were younger, did you think this is what life would be like?

M. TREADWELL: Oh, no (laughter) not at all. Nothing like this. I had different plans.

CORWIN: Treadwell did do time for drug charges in the early '90s. But for years, his ex-wife Sherri Treadwell tells me his life was on the right track. He traversed the country driving trucks, a job he loved. They had two daughters. Sitting across from me at her kitchen table, she remembers the guy she married.

SHERRI TREADWELL: He's the first one to give you the shirt off his back. If you need any help, he's right there. And he has a really good sense of humor. When he has his teeth, he has the biggest, brightest smile. And it just covers him - covers his whole face.

CORWIN: To Sherri, the drinking, the homelessness, the stints⁶ in jail - they're all symptoms of his schizophrenia. She tells me it was just a year or two into their marriage that Michael started acting⁷ strange.

S. TREADWELL: He would think there's people listening in on our conversations. He would whisper to me in the car, shhh (ph) the car is bugged⁸. No, the car's not bugged (laughter). He wouldn't talk on the phone.

CORWIN: Sherri says Treadwell turned to alcohol to cope. They divorced in 2007. People have tried to help. A year after getting divorced, Treadwell walked into a church looking for bus money and met Jarretta Copeland. Nine years later, Copeland knows him better than anyone, including how bad he can get when he drinks.

JARRETTA COPELAND: He gets to yelling and screaming and hollering. And he's talking, and he's cussing people out, swearing and carrying on and so forth⁹ and whatnot. It scares people because they don't know what his intentions are.

CORWIN: It was Copeland who got Treadwell diagnosed with schizophrenia. Over and over, she's tried to get him into New Hampshire state mental hospital and failed. Even a judge's order couldn't get him from jail to the hospital. Instead, Treadwell continues to cycle from the streets to court to jail and back again. His story is not uncommon¹⁰. Half of jail inmates¹¹ nationwide have a combination of mental health and substance-use problems. That's according to the Department of Justice.

Sherri, Treadwell's ex-wife, says the system isn't just failing people like Michael, it's failing their families. Her daughters don't have a dad around. She works two jobs and is rarely home. And they miss him.

S. TREADWELL: His liver is gone now because of the alcoholism. And so we know he's not going to be around for too much longer, and this hurts - this hurts the girls and I. And it hurts me more because I know the system could have done something.

CORWIN: Last time I talked to Treadwell, he told me he wanted to go down to South Carolina where he grew up to get his trucking license¹² back in order. He did make it to South Carolina. He ended up in a jail there. For NPR News, I'm Emily Corwin in New Hampshire.

1 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

4 trespass   

n./v.侵犯，闯入私人领地

参考例句：

• The fishing boat was seized for its trespass into restricted waters.渔船因非法侵入受限制水域而被扣押。
• The court sentenced him to a fine for trespass.法庭以侵害罪对他判以罚款。

5 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。

6 stints   

n.定额工作( stint的名词复数 )；定量；限额；慷慨地做某事

参考例句：

• He stints himself in [of] sleep. 他节制睡眠。 来自辞典例句
• She never stints herself of money to buy books for her children. 她从不吝惜掏钱让子女们买书。 来自互联网

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 bugged   

vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The police have bugged his office. 警察在他的办公室装了窃听器。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had bugged off before I had a chance to get a word in. 我还没来得及讲话，他已经走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

10 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

11 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。