PBS高端访谈:心理健康危机对工作的影响（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: Last week, our Brief But Spectacular segment focused on mental health from the perspective of a parent whose son was failed by legal and mental health systems in Washington state. Tonight, we hear from the warden of Metro County Jail in Mobile, Alabama, to get his take on how the mental health crisis affects his operation.

TREY OLIVER, Warden, Metro County Jail: With our tongue in our cheek, we look at inmates sometimes and say, listen, life here is not great. This is not a resort, it's not a hotel, it's not a retreat, it's not Burger King. You don't get it your way, and we do not want you to come back. So, we preface everything by saying, this is less-than-ideal situations. The difference between a prison and a jail is, essentially, in a prison, you are serving out your sentence that a judge has handed down. For the most part, our population is here awaiting to go to trial. The average stay for an inmate here at Metro Jail would be about 17 days. Now, that is misleading when you first consider it, because we have inmates that literally have been here for four-and-a-half years awaiting to go to trials. And, typically, that would be facing a murder trial. Working in any jail this size is a very hostile work environment, sometimes worse than a prison, because, in a prison, the inmates are settled. We have court appearances, visitation, church services. So there's a lot of activity. This facility was originally designed for less than 1,200 inmates. However, on a daily basis, we will have way over 1,500. Sometimes, we will have four or five, six and seven inmates in a cell designed for two people. We see inmates return on a very regular basis. Recidivism is probably around 50 to 60 percent. I try to, at least on a weekly basis, just walk through the jail. They want my time, they want my attention, and they will flag me down and ask me questions.

MAN: We're fighting five men to a cell around here. Toilet is messed up.

TREY OLIVER: Well, some places got seven men to a cell.

MAN: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

TREY OLIVER: Consider yourself lucky. Obviously, in a hostile work environment like this, we don't have people knocking down our door to work for us. So we always are short-staffed. And, sometimes, you're looking at one floor officer will be responsible for anywhere from 150 to 300 individuals. The mentally ill poses a number of problems for us. We feel very strongly that anyone suffering from a serious mental illness shouldn't be in a county jail. However, that happens on a regular basis. Because the state hospital is so backed up, there's no place for these people to go. When Alabama closed our only regional hospital, we saw an immediate doubling of our mental health population. We will see the same mentally ill person arrested for the same charge in the same location by the same police officer three, four and five times. This is not a problem that we can arrest ourselves out of. They need to be in a facility to where they can receive around-the-clock care. Whoever was behind the closing of the mental health hospitals, if they thought that was a good idea, I challenge them on that. They were concerned at the time that the mentally ill were being warehoused in these hospitals. Well, I got news for everybody. The mentally ill are now being warehoused in county jails across this country. My name is Trey Oliver, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on life here at Metro Jail in Mobile, Alabama.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And we thank you for that perspective. Tonight's Brief But Spectacular was produced in collaboration with Jason Johnson. He's a reporter for Lagniappe. That's a weekly paper in Mobile, Alabama. You can find a special episode with Johnson on our Web site at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：上周，我们的《简短而精彩》关注了心理健康的问题，当时是从父母的角度来看儿子没有通过华盛顿州法律系统和心理健康系统的事情。今晚，我们邀请到了阿拉巴马州莫比尔地铁县监狱的监狱长，来聊聊他对心理健康危机对工作的影响。

特雷·奥利弗，监狱长，地铁县监狱：虽然我们不会说，但我们跟狱友在一起的时候，我们有时候心里会嘀咕——这里的生活不太美好啊。这里不是度假胜地，不是旅店，也不是休息场所，也不是汉堡王。一切都不能如自己所愿，我们也不希望你们再回到这里。所以，在说任何事情之前，我们都会先表明——这里比理想的情况要差。监狱和监牢的区别是，在监狱里的人是在服从法官判定的刑期。大多数情况下，这里的人都在等待着判决。一般人在地铁县的监狱里大概待17天左右。这样说来，还是有些模糊不清。因为有一些狱友在这里待了四年半的时间，还没有到等到判决那一天。一般情况下，他们将面临的是死刑。在这种规模的监牢里工作，环境很不友好，有时候比监狱差得多。因为监牢里的犯人一待就是很久。这里有出庭、探监、教堂服务。所以活动还是很多的。这里的设备只能供不到1200名犯人使用。但日均犯人数超过了1500。有时候，双人间里有4-7名犯人。我们可以看到有些狱友会定期回到这里。再犯的比例高达近50%-60%。我试着最多每周在监牢里转一圈。他们希望我多跟他们待着，多关注他们，他们朝我发送信号，或者问我许多问题。

男：这一间，我们试着挤下5个人，而厕所已经脏乱不堪了。

特雷·奥利弗：有些地方一间要装7个人。

男：没错，确实如此。

特雷·奥利弗：还是得偷着乐，因为很显然，在这样一个恶劣的工作环境中，没有人上门找麻烦就很不错了。我们人手总是不足。有时候，一个工作人员可能要负责150-300号人。心理问题给很多人造成了困扰。我们强烈认为，任何有心理健康问题的人都不应该坐牢。但这种情况却总是频繁发生。因为州立医院太过落后，人们无处可去。阿拉巴马州关闭唯一的一家地区医院后，我们发现有心理健康问题的人数量翻倍了。我们将会看到同一名有精神问题的人在同样的地点因同样的罪名而被同样的警察逮捕四五次。这个问题是无法单靠自己的力量来解决的。他们需要在可以得到全天候护理的地方疗养。无论谁是关闭心理健康医院的罪魁祸首，不管他们觉得这个点子有多好，我都可以说服他们。打架都觉得有心理问题的人都在医院待着呢，但我想告诉所有人的是：有心理问题的人都分布在各个监牢里。我是特雷·奥利弗，这是我本期分享的与阿拉巴马州莫比尔地铁县监狱有关的《简短而精彩》。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：感谢您提供的视角。今晚的《简短而精彩》由杰森·约翰逊联合倾情播出。他是我台驻阿拉巴马州莫比尔Lagniappe周报的记者。大家还可以登录PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief官网去了解约翰逊播报的其他新闻。