经济学人精读|戴上监控脚铐，犯人可以不用蹲监狱了？

本文节选自《经济学人》的一篇文章，以脚踝监控代替监狱的其中一个例子介绍这种等待庭审方法带来的影响

本文共节选4段，建议大家先自主阅读原文，再学习精读笔记。

文末会总结此次学习写作可以使用的词句，读者也可自己总结。会定期将内容进行总结，做成word分享，希望大家也能坚持学习

Kathleen Merchant was already on probation when she got into an argument with her room-mate, who called the Indianapolis police. Ms Merchant was taken to jail, where she languished for three weeks because she neither had nor knew anyone with $500 for her bond. Eventually the Bail Project, a national non-profit that pays people’s bail, came to her rescue.

on probation：服缓刑【词组积累】

get into an argument with sb：与……发生争吵

be taken to jail：被捕入狱

languished for three weeks：languish 意为被迫滞留，长期受苦，languish for a period of time表示滞留了一段时间【词组积累】

with $500 for her bond：为她支付500美元的保释金，bond熟意为债券，这里是保释金的意思【熟词僻义】

come to one’s rescue：来营救某人，这里可以用更具体的词，如bail her out【词组积累】

当Kathleen Merchant和她的室友发生争吵时，她已经在服缓刑了，在警察到来之后，她被捕入狱。她在那里滞留了3个星期，因为她没人可以为她支付500美元的保释金。最后，一个国家非盈利保释机构来为她保释。

But as a condition of her release, she had to wear an ankle monitor. It charges those who wear monitors for the privilege; Ms Merchant paid $13 per day plus a $50 activation fee. This is a hefty burden for someone like Ms Merchant, who has neither a job nor a stable home. Her lawyer warned that if she objected to the fee, she would be sent back to jail. Ms Merchant’s story is not unusual. Electronic monitoring (EM) is increasingly seen as an alternative to cash bail, which has come under fire recently for two reasons. First, because the political and legal winds are shifting against keeping people locked up simply because they cannot come up with a few hundred dollars for bail. Second, because bail keeps jails over-crowded, whereas EM lets peopleawait trial at home.

as a condition of ……：作为……的条件【词组积累】

for the privilege：为……的特权，这里的特权是指不用呆在监狱的特权。

a hefty burden for sb：对……来说是一个很重的负担【词组积累】

object to the fee：反对支付费用，object to sth，反对某事【词组积累】

A is increasingly seen as an alternative to B：A日益被看做是B之外的另一种选择，文中Electronic monitoring is increasingly seen as an alternative to cash bail指的就是电子监控日渐被视作是现金保释之外的另一种选择【地道表达】

come under fire：遭到谴责，遭受各方非难【词组积累】

the political and legal winds are shifting against：the …… winds are shifting against doing sth，某种风向正转向做某事，如文中的政治和法律风向正转向【地道表达】

await trial at home：在家等待审讯。await sb/sth，等候，等待某人或某事【地道表达】

但作为条件，她不得不穿上一个电子脚铐，但这样的特权是有收费的。Merchant每天要付13美元，外加50美元的活动费，这对既没有工作，也没有稳定住所的她来说是个很大的负担，她的律师警告她，如果她拒绝支付费用，她将会被送回鉴于。电子监控日益被视作是现金保释的替代选择，而现金保释也因为两个原因遭受各方谴责，第一是政治和法律风向正转向反对将人锁起来，仅仅是因为他们不能拿出几百美元来保释。第二，这会让监狱人满为患，而电子监控则让人们可以在家等待审讯。

Alarms sound when a device’s batteries run down or when the signal is lost. Ms Merchant said she was on an unexpectedly long bus ride from a job interview when her device began beeping. She was reduced to pleading with businesses to let her plug herself into the wall for two hours to recharge her monitor. In these situations, wearers must plead their cases to police, whose disbelief can return them to jail.

The batteries run down：当电池用完的时候

on a long bus ride from a job interview：从工作面试回来，坐一段路途漫长的公交时【地道表达】

be reduced to doing：被迫做某事【词组积累】

plug herself into the wall to recharge her monitor：把她自己插进墙里，为设备充电。事实上是设备在她脚上，形象地表达她的无奈。

plead their cases to police：把他们的情况上报给警察。这里plead case to sb指的是将情况告诉，呈现给某人。【词组积累】

警报会在设备电量用完或失去信号的时候响起。Merchant女士说她从工作面试回来，没有意料到做了很长时间的公交，她的设备就开始响了。她不得不恳求商家让她将自己插在墙上，为设备充两个小时的电。在这些情境中，穿戴者必须把他们的情况报告给警察，不然，他们会因不被信任而被送回监狱。

EM’s defenders argue, correctly, that remaining at home with an ankle monitor is better than going to jail. But that is a low bar to clear. Like jail, which charges inmates exorbitant fees for essentials, EM extracts fees from people convicted of no crime. States and cities could use the cost savings from jailing fewer people to pay for EM. Instead, many see poor people as yet another source of revenue. Monitoring also stigmatizes people. As David Gaspar notes, when people see someone with an ankle monitor, they do not think “There’s an innocent person.” They wonder what that person did. And the burdens this stigma imposes can outlast the reason why they are fitted. Ms Merchant’s case was dismissed when the complainant repeatedly failed to appear in court. She still owes Marion County hundreds of dollars in monitoring fees.

defenders：辩护人，保护人，这里指的是支持电子监控的那些人

a low bar to clear：比喻简单，容易熬过的困难，可以理解成这也没什么。在跳高运动中，bar代表杆子，而clear有（无接触地）跃过，越过，通过某物的意思：~ sth：to jump over or get past sth without touching it【地道表达】

inmate：囚犯【词汇积累】

exorbitant fees：高额的费用，exorbitant高额的，高得离谱的【词汇积累】

extracts fees from sb：从……上收取费用，可以和文中的charge sb fees 相替换。【同义替换】

be convicted of：犯有……罪

use the cost savings：节约成本【词组积累】

see poor people as：把穷人视作【词组积累】

stigmatize：~ sb ['stɪɡmə.taɪz] 打上烙印，给……加污名，扣大帽子，stigma是其名词形式，表示耻辱，羞耻，烙印【词汇积累】

the burdens this stigma imposes：这个烙印带来的负担，也可以表达成the burden imposed by this stigma【搭配】

outlast the reason why ……：比原因的影响更久，outlast比……持续时间长【词汇积累】

case was dismissed：案件被驳回、撤销

complainant：原告

支持电子监控的人争论道，脚踝上戴着监控仪呆在家里比进监狱要好，尽管这没什么错，但其实无关紧要。就像坐牢，囚犯会因必需品被收取高昂的费用，而电子监控也会收取没有犯罪人的费用。州和市可以通过减少监禁并支付监控费用来节约成本。但是，很多人把穷人看做另一个收入来源。监控也给人们扣上了一顶“帽子”。正如David Gaspar提到的，当人们看到一个脚踝上带有监控的人，他们不会认为这是个无辜的人，他们会想，那个人做了什么。而且，这种烙印带来的负担会比为什么他们装上监控的原因影响的时间更久。Merchant的案件，因为原告一直不出庭而被撤销了，而她还欠马里恩县几百美元的监控费。

总结