VOA标准英语2013--纽约感化中心的新康复办法

 

New York Probation¹ Center's New Tack² on Rehabilitation 纽约感化中心的新康复办法

NEW YORK — Probation offices, where convicts must report regularly as an alternative to prison time, tend to be grim places.

But New York City is experimenting with a new kind of probation office — community-based, client-centered and attractive — that is putting a dent³ in the number of probation violations⁴ and repeat offenses⁵.

South Bronx-based Neighborhood Opportunity Network, known as "NeON," is situated⁶ in one of New York's — and thereby⁷ America's — highest crime districts.

With regular poetry slams, on-site health screenings and fun job networking events, it's not what you'd expect of an inner-city probation center.

Lonni Tanner, Chief Change Officer for the New York City Department of Design and Construction, and Executive Director of See ChangeNYC, is in charge of improving city service centers. She transformed the old office space into something more inspiring.

"I saw a lot of people waiting, nothing going on," she says. "I thought, what if, in fact, this could be a place of doing rather than waiting?"

New York City Probation Commissioner⁸ Vincent Schiraldi, who was responsible for putting the NeON program into several high-crime neighborhoods, says client engagement was a primary focus.

"What it’s really about is increasing public safety by engaging our clients productively, so they are part of their own rehabilitative⁹ process," he says. "It’s not just something being done to them."

While NeOn’s approach represents a sea change for many probation officers who are accustomed to the "trail ‘em, nail ‘em and jail ‘em" way of doing things, most have been won over by the strategy, some of them even participating in weekly poetry workshops offered by the facility's Poet-in-Residence Dave Johnson.

"The poems are here, they’re alive. They’re within the people," says Johnson, explaining that he believes poetry encourages soul searching and peaceful, effective communication.

Each of his workshops ends with a poetry slam where probationers, staff and community members can share their work.

With eighty percent of the organization's clients successfully completing their periods of probation — and the number released from probation early for good behavior has increased fivefold — some are beginning to find poetry in NeOn’s success rate.

1 probation   

n.缓刑(期)，(以观后效的)察看；试用(期)

参考例句：

• The judge did not jail the young man,but put him on probation for a year.法官没有把那个年轻人关进监狱，而且将他缓刑察看一年。
• His salary was raised by 800 yuan after his probation.试用期满以后，他的工资增加了800元。

2 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

3 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

4 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

5 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

6 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

7 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

8 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

9 rehabilitative   

使复原的，复职的

参考例句：

• Objective To desacribe self concept and sub concept of rehabilitative schizophrenic patients. 目的探讨恢复期精神分裂症病人的自我概念。
• Objective To desacribe self concept and concept of rehabilitative schizophrenic patients. 目的探讨大学生自我概念与心理健康之间的关系。