如果未成年人犯罪，在美國的司法系統中有兩個選擇，要麼是在法律允許的範圍內起訴，要麼是後退一步，思考讓年輕人背負上犯罪記錄是否每次都會是正確的做法。Adma Foss是一名檢察官，他根據自己的親身經歷提出，要用機會取代憤怒，讓他們的生活變得更好，而不是毀滅他們。
中英全文（來自TED官網）
The following are my opinions, and do not reflect the opinions or policies of any particular prosecutor's office.
下面我將陳述我的觀點，這些都是我的個人看法，並不代表任何檢察機關。
I am a prosecutor. I believe in law and order. I am the adopted son of a police officer, a Marine and a hairdresser. I believe in accountability and that we should all be safe in our communities. I love my job and the people that do it. I just think that it's our responsibility to do it better.
我是一名檢察官。我相信法律和秩序。我的養父是警官、海軍陸戰隊員，養母是一名美髮師。我相信責任感，也相信我們應該在社區中享有安全。我愛我的工作也愛我的同行們。我只是覺得我們有責任把工作做得更好。
By a show of hands, how many of you, by the age of 25, had either acted up in school, went somewhere you were specifically told to stay out of, or drank alcohol before your legal age?
你們中間，有誰在25歲的時候，在學校調過皮，幹過一些明令禁止的事兒，或者在未成年的時候喝過酒？舉一下手。
All right.
好的。
How many of you shoplifted, tried an illegal drug or got into a physical fight -- yes, even with a sibling? Now, how many of you ever spent one day in jail for any of those decisions? How many of you sitting here today think that you're a danger to society or should be defined by those actions of youthful indiscretion?
那麼有誰偷過東西，試過違禁藥品或者打過架，對，即使跟兄弟姐妹也算。有誰因為剛才說的這些事兒在監獄待過哪怕一天？那麼，剛剛舉手的各位你們是覺得自己對社會是危險的？還是認為那只是年輕人的少不更事？
Point taken.
好吧，我懂了。
When we talk about criminal justice reform, we often focus on a few things, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. But first I'm going to -- since you shared with me, I'm going to give you a confession on my part. I went to law school to make money. I had no interest in being a public servant, I had no interest in criminal law, and I definitely didn't think that I would ever be a prosecutor.
當我們談論刑事司法改革時，我們常常關注幾件事，這正是我今天要講的。但首先我要說的是——既然你們都實話實說了，我也要實話實說。我去念法律，是為了多掙些錢。當時，我對當公務員沒興趣，也不喜歡刑法，更沒想過會成為檢察官。
Near the end of my first year of law school, I got an internship in the Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal Court. I knew of Roxbury as an impoverished neighborhood in Boston, plagued by gun violence and drug crime. My life and my legal career changed the first day of that internship. I walked into a courtroom, and I saw an auditorium of people who, one by one, would approach the front of that courtroom to say two words and two words only: "Not guilty." They were predominately black and brown. And then a judge, a defense attorney and a prosecutor would make life-altering decisions about that person without their input. They were predominately white. As each person, one by one, approached the front of that courtroom, I couldn't stop but think: How did they get here? I wanted to know their stories. And as the prosecutor read the facts of each case, I was thinking to myself, we could have predicted that. That seems so preventable... not because I was an expert in criminal law, but because it was common sense.
在法學院第一年臨近結束時，我得到了一個實習機會是在波士頓市法院羅克斯伯裡分院。我知道羅克斯伯裡是波士頓的一個貧困社區，那裡槍枝泛濫，毒品成災。從我實習的第一天起，我的人生和法律道路就此改變。我走進法庭，看見滿屋子的人，他們一個個走到法庭前面，說的都是同樣的兩個字：「無罪。」這些人大部分是黑人或者棕色人種。之後法官、辯護律師和檢察官，可能要在並不了解他們的前提下，做出改變這些人一生的決定。而他們大部分是白人。看著這些人一個個走上法庭，我禁不住想：他們怎麼會落到這步田地？我想了解他們的故事。作為檢察官，我翻閱了每一個案子的卷宗，我對自己說，我們本可以預見這一切，可以避免這一切……我這麼想並不是因為我是刑法專家，而是因為這是常識。
Over the course of the internship, I began to recognize people in the auditorium, not because they were criminal masterminds but because they were coming to us for help and we were sending them out without any.
通過這次實習，我開始審視這些法庭上的人，並不因為他們是犯罪專家，而是因為他們來找我們尋求幫助，我們什麼也不做，直接打發走。
My second year of law school I worked as a paralegal for a defense attorney, and in that experience I met many young men accused of murder. Even in our "worst," I saw human stories. And they all contained childhood trauma, victimization, poverty, loss, disengagement from school, early interaction with the police and the criminal justice system, all leading to a seat in a courtroom. Those convicted of murder were condemned to die in prison, and it was during those meetings with those men that I couldn't fathom why we would spend so much money to keep this one person in jail for the next 80 years when we could have reinvested it up front, and perhaps prevented the whole thing from happening in the first place.
我在法學院的第二年，給一位辯護律師當助手，在這期間我遇到了許多被控謀殺的年輕人。即使是這種重犯，我覺得他們也是有苦衷的。他們的童年都很悲慘，被虐待，貧困，失去親人，缺乏教育，很早就被警察抓過，進入過司法程序，所有這一切，最後導致他們站上法庭。這些被控謀殺的人最後被判終身監禁，有一件事情我沒有想明白，為什麼我們要花這麼多錢把這個人關在監獄裡，長達80年，而不是在最開始就善加利用這筆錢，這樣也許能從根本上阻止罪行的發生。
My third year of law school, I defended people accused of small street crimes, mostly mentally ill, mostly homeless, mostly drug-addicted, all in need of help. They would come to us, and we would send them away without that help. They were in need of our assistance. But we weren't giving them any. Prosecuted, adjudged and defended by people who knew nothing about them.
在法學院的第三年，我為那些被控街頭犯罪的人辯護，大部分都有精神疾病，大部分無家可歸，大部分有毒癮，全都需要幫助。他們來尋求幫助，我們什麼也不做，直接打發走。他們需要我們的協助。而我們並沒有提供。檢察官，法官，辯護律師，對他們一無所知。
The staggering inefficiency is what drove me to criminal justice work. The unfairness of it all made me want to be a defender. The power dynamic that I came to understand made me become a prosecutor.
刑事審判工作效率低下，我想從中改變它。而其中的不公正讓我想當一名保護者。我看到了檢察官強大的力量，因此我選擇成為檢察官。
I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about the problem. We know the criminal justice system needs reform, we know there are 2.3 million people in American jails and prisons, making us the most incarcerated nation on the planet. We know there's another seven million people on probation or parole, we know that the criminal justice system disproportionately affects people of color, particularly poor people of color. And we know there are system failures happening everywhere that bring people to our courtrooms. But what we do not discuss is how ill-equipped our prosecutors are to receive them. When we talk about criminal justice reform, we, as a society, focus on three things. We complain, we tweet, we protest about the police, about sentencing laws and about prison. We rarely, if ever, talk about the prosecutor.
我不想花太多時間來陳述存在的問題。眾所周知，刑事審判系統需要改革，我們知道美國的監獄裡關押了230萬人，數量排世界第一。我們知道還有700萬人在緩刑期或者假釋，我們知道刑事審判系統對於有色人種不公平，尤其是那些貧困的有色人種。我們明白，由於刑法系統不完善，才會有許多人來法庭（尋求幫助）。但我們沒有意識到的是，我們的檢察官們沒有足夠的能力來幫助他們。我們討論刑事審判改革的時候，全社會只關注三件事。我們投訴、發帖、抗議，矛頭對準的是警察、法律和監獄。我們幾乎從來不會找檢察官的茬。
In the fall of 2009, a young man was arrested by the Boston Police Department. He was 18 years old, he was African American and he was a senior at a local public school. He had his sights set on college but his part-time, minimum-wage job wasn't providing the financial opportunity he needed to enroll in school. In a series of bad decisions, he stole 30 laptops from a store and sold them on the Internet. This led to his arrest and a criminal complaint of 30 felony charges. The potential jail time he faced is what stressed Christopher out the most. But what he had little understanding of was the impact a criminal record would have on his future.
2009年秋天，一個小夥子被波士頓警察局逮捕。他是一名18歲的非裔美國人，在當地一所公立學校上高三。他的目標是考上大學但他那份兼職、低薪的工作，無法承擔他上學的費用。他做出了一系列錯誤的決定，從一家店裡偷走了30臺筆記本電腦並在網上出售。這導致他被逮捕並被控30項重罪。未來的牢獄之災讓克里斯多福緊張不已。但他沒有意識到的是，這項犯罪記錄會對他的未來造成多大的影響。
I was standing in arraignments that day when Christopher's case came across my desk. And at the risk of sounding dramatic, in that moment, I had Christopher's life in my hands. I was 29 years old, a brand-new prosecutor, and I had little appreciation for how the decisions I would make would impact Christopher's life. Christopher's case was a serious one and it needed to be dealt with as such, but I didn't think branding him a felon for the rest of his life was the right answer.
是否傳訊克里斯多福讓我左右為難。這麼說可能有點矯情，但在當時的情況下，克里斯多福的命運就掌握在我手裡。當時我29歲，剛剛當上檢察官，對於我所做的決定將如何影響克里斯多福的人生還沒什麼認識。克里斯多福的案子很重要，需要嚴肅對待，但我不覺得讓他下半輩子一直被扣著罪犯的帽子是正確的解決之道。
For the most part, prosecutors step onto the job with little appreciation of the impact of our decisions, regardless of our intent. Despite our broad discretion, we learn to avoid risk at all cost, rendering our discretion basically useless. History has conditioned us to believe that somehow, the criminal justice system brings about accountability and improves public safety, despite evidence to the contrary. We're judged internally and externally by our convictions and our trial wins, so prosecutors aren't really incentivized to be creative at our case dispositions, or to take risks on people we might not otherwise. We stick to an outdated method, counterproductive to achieving the very goal that we all want, and that's safer communities.
大部分檢察官，在剛入行的時候，對自己的決定能產生多大的影響，往往認識不夠，儘管我們的出發點是好的。儘管我們有很大的自主權，但是我們學的是儘量規避風險，這讓我們的自主權形同虛設。我們已經習慣性地去相信，刑事司法系統會增強（人們的）責任感改善公共安全，儘管事實可能正好相反。無論圈內圈外，評價我們的標準就是是否定罪和勝訴因此檢察官並沒有動力，對不同的案子來具體問題具體分析，或者冒險去相信人們。我們還抱著過時的方法不放，想達成我們的目標，讓我們的社區更安全，但往往事與願違。
Yet most prosecutors standing in my space would have arraigned Christopher. They have little appreciation for what we can do. Arraigning Christopher would give him a criminal record, making it harder for him to get a job, setting in motion a cycle that defines the failing criminal justice system today. With a criminal record and without a job, Christopher would be unable to find employment, education or stable housing. Without those protective factors in his life, Christopher would be more likely to commit further, more serious crime. The more contact Christopher had with the criminal justice system, the more likely it would be that he would return again and again and again -- all at tremendous social cost to his children, to his family and to his peers. And, ladies and gentlemen, it is a terrible public safety outcome for the rest of us.
我想如果處在我的位置，大多數檢察官會傳訊克里斯多福。他們對自己的能力知之甚少。傳訊克里斯多福會讓他背上犯罪記錄，他會很難找到工作，這樣就形成了一個惡性循環正好證明如今的刑事司法系統有多失敗。有犯罪記錄，沒有工作，克里斯多福不可能養活自己，更別說上學和買房子。沒有這些生活保障，克里斯多福很可能會在犯罪的道路上越走越遠。他與刑事司法系統瓜葛越多，重新犯罪的可能性就會越來越大，越來越大。這對他的孩子，他的家庭，他的兄弟姐妹都是巨大的社會成本。而且，女士們先生們，這對我們而言是一個嚴重的公共安全問題。
When I came out of law school, I did the same thing as everybody else. I came out as a prosecutor expected to do justice, but I never learned what justice was in my classes -- none of us do. None of us do.
當我從法學院畢業後，走的路跟其他人一樣。我成為了一名檢察官，希望能主持公正，但什麼是公正，在課堂上是學不到的，沒有人，能從課堂上學到。
And yet, prosecutors are the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system. Our power is virtually boundless. In most cases, not the judge, not the police, not the legislature, not the mayor, not the governor, not the President can tell us how to prosecute our cases. The decision to arraign Christopher and give him a criminal record was exclusively mine. I would choose whether to prosecute him for 30 felonies, for one felony, for a misdemeanor, or at all. I would choose whether to leverage Christopher into a plea deal or take the case to trial, and ultimately, I would be in a position to ask for Christopher to go to jail. These are decisions that prosecutors make every day unfettered, and we are unaware and untrained of the grave consequences of those decisions.
然而，檢察官是刑事司法系統中最重要的角色。我們的力量幾乎是無限的。在大多數案件中，法官警察、立法機構市長、州長、總統都無權幹涉我們的訴訟過程。是否傳訊克里斯多福，是否給他留下犯罪記錄，這完全取決於我。我可以選擇起訴他犯了30條重罪，或者1條，或者輕罪，或者根本不起訴。我可以選擇讓克里斯多福籤認罪協議或者讓他出庭受審，最終，我可以親手把他送進監獄。檢察官每天都能自由地做出很多決定，但這些決定可能產生的嚴重後果，我們毫不知情，學校也沒教過。
One night this past summer, I was at a small gathering of professional men of color from around the city. As I stood there stuffing free finger sandwiches into my mouth, as you do as public servant --
去年夏天的一個晚上，我參加了一個小型聚會，參加者是我們市裡各行各業的非白人。我站在那兒，不停往嘴裡塞免費的三明治條，——咱公務員經常這麼幹——
I noticed across the room, a young man waving and smiling at me and approaching me. And I recognized him, but I couldn't place from where, and before I knew it, this young man was hugging me. And thanking me. "You cared about me, and you changed my life." It was Christopher.
我注意到房間另一邊，一個年輕人微笑著向我揮手，並向我走近。我覺得他很眼熟，但想不起來在哪裡見過，我還在使勁回憶，他已經一把抱住我。對我說謝謝。「你關心過我，改變了我的人生。」是克里斯多福。
See, I never arraigned Christopher. He never faced a judge or a jail, he never had a criminal record. Instead, I worked with Christopher; first on being accountable for his actions, and then, putting him in a position where he wouldn't re-offend. We recovered 75 percent of the computers that he sold and gave them back to Best Buy, and came up with a financial plan to repay for the computers we couldn't recover. Christopher did community service. He wrote an essay reflecting on how this case could impact his future and that of the community. He applied to college, he obtained financial aid, and he went on to graduate from a four-year school.
我最終沒有傳訊他。他沒有上法庭，也沒有進監獄，沒有留下犯罪記錄。我幫助克里斯多福，首先認清了自己在這件事上的責任，然後確保他不會再犯。我們追回了他賣掉電腦的四分之三，還給了百思買，然後制定了財務計劃償還那些沒法追回的電腦。克里斯多福參加了社區服務。他還寫了一篇文章，關於這件案子如何改變了他的未來以及社區的未來。他申請了大學，得到了助學金，順利完成了四年的大學課程。
After we finished hugging, I looked at his name tag, to learn that Christopher was the manager of a large bank in Boston. Christopher had accomplished -- and making a lot more money than me --
擁抱完之後，我看了看他的名牌，發現克里斯多福已經是波士頓一家大銀行的經理。他成功了——而且掙得比我多多了——
He had accomplished all of this in the six years since I had first seen him in Roxbury Court. I can't take credit for Christopher's journey to success, but I certainly did my part to keep him on the path.
從我第一次見到他——在羅克斯伯裡的法庭上——到現在已經6年了，他成功了。我不能說克里斯多福的成功完全是因為我，但我的確將他帶到了正確的道路上。
There are thousands of Christophers out there, some locked in our jails and prisons. We need thousands of prosecutors to recognize that and to protect them. An employed Christopher is better for public safety than a condemned one. It's a bigger win for all of us. In retrospect, the decision not to throw the book at Christopher makes perfect sense. When I saw him that first day in Roxbury Court, I didn't see a criminal standing there. I saw myself -- a young person in need of intervention. As an individual caught selling a large quantity of drugs in my late teens, I knew firsthand the power of opportunity as opposed to the wrath of the criminal justice system. Along the way, with the help and guidance of my district attorney, my supervisor and judges, I learned the power of the prosecutor to change lives instead of ruining them.
還有很多人像克里斯多福一樣，其中一些被關在監獄裡。我們需要更多能看清他們，保護他們的檢察官。一個有工作的克里斯多福比一個被判刑的，對公眾而言更安全。對所有人都更有利。事後來看，沒有傳訊克里斯多福是一個正確的決定。當我第一次在羅克斯伯裡見到他時，我見到的不是一名罪犯。我見到的是我自己——一個需要引導的年輕人。作為一個曾經因為出售毒品被抓的年輕人，我深深懂得給予機會，比起刑事審判系統的雷霆懲罰更有力量。一路走來，我得到了地區檢察官、監督人和法官的幫助和指導，我看到了檢察官的力量，能改變人的命運而不是毀掉一個人。
And that's how we do it in Boston. We helped a woman who was arrested for stealing groceries to feed her kids get a job. Instead of putting an abused teenager in adult jail for punching another teenager, we secured mental health treatment and community supervision. A runaway girl who was arrested for prostituting, to survive on the streets, needed a safe place to live and grow -- something we could help her with. I even helped a young man who was so afraid of the older gang kids showing up after school, that one morning instead of a lunchbox into his backpack, he put a loaded 9-millimeter. We would spend our time that we'd normally take prepping our cases for months and months for trial down the road by coming up with real solutions to the problems as they presented.
我們在波士頓也是這麼做的。一位女性因盜竊食品給孩子吃而被捕，我們幫她找到了一份工作。一個遭虐待的年輕人打了另一個，我們沒把他投進監獄，而是讓他接受心理治療，給他安排社區監護人。一個離家出走的女孩，因在街頭賣淫被捕，她需要的是一個安全的成長環境，而這些是我們可以幫到她的。我們還幫過一個小夥子，他因為害怕放學後被那些混幫派的大孩子欺負，某天早上他往書包裡塞的不是午餐盒，而是一把上膛的9毫米手槍。我們將搜集材料、準備起訴的時間，——通常長達數月之久——用來尋找這些問題的真正解決之道。
Which is the better way to spend our time? How would you prefer your prosecutors to spend theirs? Why are we spending 80 billion dollars on a prison industry that we know is failing, when we could take that money and reallocate it into education, into mental health treatment, into substance abuse treatment and to community investment so we can develop our neighborhoods?
我們的時間應該花在哪裡比較好？你希望你的檢察官如何使用他們的時間？為什麼我要把800億美元投在一個失敗的監獄系統上，而不是投到教育上，投到心理治療上，投到防止虐待上，投到社區中，使社區得到更好發展？
So why should this matter to you? Well, one, we're spending a lot of money. Our money. It costs 109,000 dollars in some states to lock up a teenager for a year, with a 60 percent chance that that person will return to the very same system. That is a terrible return on investment.
這些跟在座各位有什麼關係？首先，我們花了許多錢。我們的錢。在某些州，把一個青少年關一年，需要花費10萬9千美元，而這個人有60%的機率再次被捕，繼續蹲監獄。這種投資回報實在糟糕。
Number two: it's the right thing to do. If prosecutors were a part of creating the problem, it's incumbent on us to create a solution and we can do that using other disciplines that have already done the data and research for us.
其次，這件事是對的，我們必須做。如果檢察官是導致問題的因素之一，那要解決問題，我們責無旁貸，我們可以採取其它的懲罰措施，有現成的數據和研究可以借鑑。
And number three: your voice and your vote can make that happen. The next time there's a local district attorney's election in your jurisdiction, ask candidates these questions. One: What are you doing to make me and my neighbors safer? Two: What data are you collecting, and how are you training your prosecutors to make sure that it's working? And number three: If it's not working for everybody, what are you doing to fix it? If they can't answer the questions, they shouldn't be doing the job.
第三，你們的意見，你們的選擇至關重要。下一次，如果在你們的轄區有地方檢察官選舉，你可以問候選人幾個問題。第一，你會採取什麼措施讓我和我們社區更安全？第二，你會收集哪些數據？你會如何訓練你的檢察官來善用這些數據？第三，如果你的措施並不是對每個人都有效，那你會怎麼補救？如果他們無法回答這些問題，他們就不配做這項工作。
Each one of you that raised your hand at the beginning of this talk is a living, breathing example of the power of opportunity, of intervention, of support and of love. While each of you may have faced your own brand of discipline for whatever malfeasances you committed, barely any of you needed a day in jail to make you the people that you are today -- some of the greatest minds on the planet.
在演講最開始舉手的每一個人你們就是最鮮活的例子，你們闡明了機會的力量，引導的力量，支持的力量，愛的力量。也許對於自己當年的不當行為，你們大家都得到了各自不同的懲罰，你們中沒有任何人需要通過坐牢來成為今天的你們——世界上最精英的人群。
Every day, thousands of times a day, prosecutors around the United States wield power so great that it can bring about catastrophe as quickly as it can bring about opportunity, intervention, support and yes, even love. Those qualities are the hallmarks of a strong community, and a strong community is a safe one. If our communities are broken, don't let the lawyers that you elect fix them with outdated, inefficient, expensive methods.
每一天，成千上萬次，美國的檢察官們都在行使自己的權力，這權力有可能帶來災難，也可能帶來機會，帶來引導，帶來支持，甚至帶來愛。這些都是一個強大社區的特質，強大的社區就是安全的社區。如果我們的社區出現了問題，不要讓你選擇的律師用過時、低效、昂貴的方法來解決它。
Demand more; vote for the prosecutor who's helping people stay out of jail, not putting them in.
勇敢呼籲，不要選舉那些光想著讓人坐牢的檢察官，選那些願意幫助人的。
Demand better. You deserve it, your children deserve it, the people who are tied up in the system deserve it, but most of all, the people that we are sworn to protect and do justice for demand it.
選擇更好的。這是你應得的，是你的孩子應得的，是那些被這個體制所累的人應得的，但最重要的是，人民——我們宣誓要保護的，我們宣誓要給予公正的——人民需要它。
We must, we must do better.
我們必須，必須做得更好。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
Thank you very much.
非常感謝。
100天聽力訓練營
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識別上圖二維碼即可參與課程
1.3000左右的詞彙量增長；積累大量的實用表達
2.切實提高聽力能力，不會再出現「看得懂卻聽不懂」的問題，掌握練習聽力的方法，逐步能夠聽懂VOA BBC新聞，無字幕看電影
3.累計精聽21000字，相當於默寫了一本《小王子》
4.熟悉多樣的聽力材料，有能力在令人眼花繚亂的市場中找出適合自己學習的內容；
5.對於英文發音的連略讀現象有深刻的認識，在日後的學習中，有能力找出自己聽不懂的原因，並且可以自主解決和分析問題
6.大幅度提高應試成績