经济学人下载:监狱人满为患,为尊严而战

Prison overcrowding
监狱人满为患

win for dignity
为尊严而战

The Supreme Court orders California to make its prisons more humane
最高法院要求加州监狱更加人性化

May 26th 2011 | LOS ANGELES | from the print edition

Not that unusual不足为奇

ANTHONY KENNEDY, appointed to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan and in effect its swing vote nowadays, has for years been speaking out against the inhumane conditions inside America’s prisons. As a native of California, he has also taken an interest in that state’s particularly horrendous prison overcrowding. In Los Angeles last year, he called it “sick” that the state’s prison-guards union had sponsored a notorious ballot measure that, with other sentencing excesses, now keeps far too many Californians locked up.

由罗纳德??里根（Ronald Reagan）委任的最高法院法官，实则现在法院提案关键投票者的安东尼??肯尼迪（Anthony Kennedy），在过去的几年里挺身而出，直言抗议美国监狱的非人性化环境。作为一个加州人，他对州里极其糟糕，人满为患的监狱环境也很关注。去年在洛杉矶，他说加州狱警工会出台的有名的表决措施很“恶心”，再加上判刑过重，加州监狱现在的在押人数实在太多。

So it was no surprise that Mr Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in a 5-4 decision by the court this week that orders California to reduce its prison overcrowding. Full capacity is defined as one inmate per cell, which in California currently means 80,000 prisoners. But California’s prisons have at times housed twice as many, with inmates stacked in bunk beds in gymnasiums. At the moment, the prisons are about 175% full. The court order requires that ratio to go down to a slightly less egregious 137.5% within two years.

难怪肯尼迪（Kennedy）在本周法院5比4的提案中写下的判词都是要求加州削减其监狱人数。最高容量是指每间牢房住一个囚犯，而这个概念在如今的加州意味着一个牢房住8万名囚犯。可是有时加州监狱在押犯人数量是这个的两倍之多，囚犯就蜗居在体育馆的双层床上。目前，建州监狱人数比率约175%。法院的指示要求两年之内该比率应下降到一个稍微没那么糟的水平，即137.5%