2022年经济学人 疫情之下，美国监狱状况更糟糕了(1)（在线收听）

United States

美国版块

Life locked up

封锁的生活

Rotten porridge

腐烂的粥

America's prisons were in a poor state before COVID-19. Now they are worse.

疫情之前，美国的监狱状况就很差，现在情况更糟了。

The inmates at Logan Correctional Centre, a women’s prison in rural Illinois, have to endure a lot.

洛根惩教中心是伊利诺斯州乡下的一所女子监狱，里面的囚犯们忍受着巨大的痛苦。

The kitchens are infested with cockroaches.

厨房里到处都是蟑螂。

The ceilings are crumbling.

天花板正在摇摇欲坠。

Many of the buildings are full of black mould.

许多建筑物都长满了黑色霉菌。

The showers and toilets often break down, and the plumbing occasionally backs up, pumping sewage onto the floors.

淋浴和厕所经常出现故障，管道时常会堵塞，把污水泵到地板上。

According to Lauren Stumblingbear, a 36-year-old former inmate who was released last July after serving nearly a decade for taking part in an armed robbery, perhaps craziest of all were the raccoons.

36岁的劳伦·斯顿布林熊之前是这里的一名囚犯，因参与武装抢劫而服刑近10年，于去年7月获释。据她所说，也许最疯狂的是浣熊。

The critters were living in the housing unit of the prison, she says.

她说，这些小动物住在监狱的房间里。

"They would come down through holes in the ceiling. "

“他们会从天花板上的洞里下来。”

From March of 2020, however, even the raccoons seemed mild compared with what prisoners had to cope with.

然而，从2020年3月开始，与囚犯们不得不应对的状况相比，浣熊也显得不那么糟糕了。

When covid-19 arrived, they were confined to their cells.

当疫情来临时，她们被限制在自己的牢房里。

For the first two weeks they could not shower or make phone calls.

在最初的两周里，她们不能洗澡，也不能打电话。

They could not use the commissary, because it was run by prisoners who were no longer allowed to move around, and had to eat sandwiches brought to their cells.

她们不能去食堂吃饭，因为食堂是由囚犯运营的，她们不能四处走动，只能在牢房里吃三明治。

“We sat there for months just not doing anything,” says Ms Stumblingbear.

“我们在那里坐了几个月，什么也没做，”斯顿布林贝尔女士说。

Covid ripped through the prison anyway.

新冠病毒还是在监狱里肆虐。

Two years later, the latest lockdown has only just been lifted.

两年后，最近的封锁才刚刚解除。

Conditions in America’s prisons were terrible even before the pandemic.

甚至在疫情之前，美国监狱的条件就已经很糟糕了。

Like Logan, many have been dilapidated, overcrowded and understaffed for decades.

像洛根一样，许多监狱几十年来一直破旧不堪，人满为患，人手不足。

A federal investigation of Alabama prisons in 2019 exposed rape, murder and drug trafficking.

2019年对阿拉巴马州监狱的联邦调查揭露了强奸、谋杀和毒品贩运事件。

Guards not only failed to prevent it but were sometimes implicated.

狱警不仅不阻止它，而且有时还会牵涉其中。

The pandemic has pushed the system close to collapse.

疫情已将该系统推向崩溃的边缘。

“Inhumane conditions prevail in prisons and jails in the United States at all levels of government, federal, state and local,” says Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator from Georgia, who launched a working group on conditions in federal prisons in February.

来自佐治亚州的民主党参议员乔恩·奥斯索夫说，“美国各级政府、联邦、州和地方的监狱和监狱普遍存在不人道的条件。”他于2月份成立了一个关于联邦监狱条件的工作组。

Even as the virus recedes, chronic staff shortages suggest conditions may not improve much.

即使病毒消退，由于长期的人员短缺，可能情况不会有太大改善。

According to data from the Department of Justice, in 2018 the number of deaths in state prisons hit the highest level since recording started in 2001.

根据司法部的数据，2018年，州监狱的死亡人数达到了自2001年开始记录以来的最高水平。

Though illness accounted for the vast majority, homicides and suicides also set records.

虽然疾病占绝大多数，但他杀和自杀数量也创下了纪录。

Preliminary data for 2020 show deaths in state and federal prisons increased by 46% over 2019—unsurprisingly, given how fast covid spread inside.

2020年的初步数据显示，由于疫情在监狱内的传播，州和联邦监狱的死亡人数比2019年增加了46%，这并不令人意外。

Violence may well have increased too, but it is hard to tell, because state departments of corrections often do not release information about it (local jails, which are usually reserved for suspects awaiting trial, are even worse).

暴力事件很可能也有所增加，但这很难说，因为州惩戒部门经常不公布相关信息（地方监狱通常是为等待审判的嫌疑人预留的，情况更糟）。

So evidence is patchy.

所以证据是不完整的。

A single jail in St Louis had four riots last year, as prisoners protested about delays to their court hearings.

去年，圣路易斯的一所监狱发生了四起骚乱，原因是囚犯们抗议法庭听证会被推迟。

One silver lining is that fewer people are in prison.

令人欣慰的是，入狱的人数减少了。

Data collated by the Prison Policy Initiative, a think-tank, showed that the total number of people in state and federal prisons fell by around 14% from January 2020 to December 2021, to the lowest level in decades.

智库监狱政策倡议整理的数据显示，从2020年1月到2021年12月，州和联邦监狱的总人数下降了约14%，降至数十年来的最低水平。

That does not necessarily mean that the total number of people locked up has fallen by as much, however, since many have ended up serving their sentences in local jails instead, as prison authorities did not want to admit potentially infected people.

然而，这并不一定意味着被关押的总人数下降了同样多，因为许多人最后会在当地监狱服刑，因为监狱当局不想接纳潜在的感染者。