你知道嗎？目前美國警察只花大約4%的工作時間去應對真正的暴力犯罪。大部分的州政府在每個囚犯身上花的錢比在每個學生上花的錢還要多，而經過司法系統的改造後，幾乎一半的獲釋囚犯在3年內再次入獄。。。
Did you know? Police only spend about 4% of their time handling violent crime? Most states spend more money per inmate than per student. Almost half of the released prisoners are back in prison within 3 years.
削減警隊預算(Defund the police)並不是說從此就沒人去抓壞人了，相反，它的目的實際上是解決更根本的問題——防止人們變成罪犯。很多人相信警察是為了保護人民的安全而存在的，但實際上，警察的主要功能僅僅是是抓罪犯。也許把犯罪分子統統抓起來或者是減少犯罪率都可以減少犯罪。區別是把抓壞人花的錢要比減少犯罪率昂貴得多，而且抓罪犯本身並不能讓我們的社會變得更加安全。Defund the police 意味著，把原本給分給警察和監獄的剩餘資金轉移到解決犯罪滋生的根源問題上，防患於未然，將有可能的犯罪消滅在萌芽狀態。從而可以節省大量的資金和資源，同時避免無數個家庭的痛苦。如果想避免這一切，我們首先得知道一個人是怎麼變成罪犯的。
Who will protect us if we defund the police?
Defunding the police doesn’t mean that anarchy reigns and no one will stop thieves and murderers. Many people believe that the police are here to keep your family safe, but what police actually do is catch criminals. An alternative is to reduce crime by addressing the root causes of crime. 「Defund the police」 means to divert money from police and prisons to more cost-effective solutions like education and mental health care that can actually reduce crime, thus avoiding the social, emotional, and financial costs of crime altogether. However, to do this effectively, we first have to understand how people become criminals.
請想像一下有一個16歲的女孩叫阿麗。她在中學成績優異，她家有三個兄弟姐妹。一個周末晚上，她和她的朋友在公園裡面玩，他們大聲的說笑引起了警察的注意。警察要求他們走到警車旁邊，並把手放在警車上，要求對他們進行搜身。這幾個孩子覺得不可思議，拒絕配合。警察一再堅持，告知他們違反了公園的宵禁令，並拒絕讓他們離開，事態進一步升級，隨後他們被警方逮捕，並指控他們違反公園宵禁（violating park curfew）擾亂持續（disturbing the peace）和拒絕驅散（refusal to disperse）。很不幸，她的罪名成立，因此她留下一個未成年犯罪記錄。同時她的家人要為她支付了保釋金，罰款和訴訟費，一共為她闖下的這個禍欠了近2000元的債務。而由於這件事，她開始和母親吵架，並開始逃學。
Imagine there’s a girl named Alexis. She is 16, the youngest of four, and gets good grades. One night, she is out at a park with friends. They are talking and laughing loudly when a police car pulls up. Two policemen tell the teens to step to the side of their car and submit to a search. Incredulous, the kids refuse. The police insist, telling them that they are unlawfully violating park curfew, and refuse to let them leave. As the situation escalates, the police arrest them, additionally charging them with disturbing the peace and refusal to disperse. Between the cost of the bail bond, the fines, and the court fees, Alexis’s family owes almost $2000, and she now has a juvenile record. Because of this incident, she fights a lot with her mother.
漸漸的，她開始和一個「小混混」開始談戀愛。有一天，阿麗和男友坐在路邊的車上，遇到了男友的兩個朋友，朋友們隨後上車，男友駕車載著一車人離開，但不過十分鐘車上四人都被警察抓獲。原來，男友的兩個朋友在上車之前剛剛用槍搶劫了某人。阿麗隨後被指控協助持槍搶劫逃離（在加州，協助逃離者與主犯同罪）。由於阿麗已經有了一個未成年人犯罪記錄，並已滿18歲，檢查官威脅要以最高刑期19年來起訴她。她很害怕，不想上庭，她選擇了認下較輕的罪名，被判入獄6年。但是，她沒有被厄運打倒，她在獄中裡努力打工，並完成了高中學業，獲得了文憑，而且因表現好提前一年獲得假釋。
Rebelling, she begins skipping school and dating a 「bad boy.」 One day while in his car, they run into his friends, who jump in his car and tell him to drive. It turns out the friends have just robbed someone at gunpoint, and the police soon stop their car and arrest everyone.
Because Alexis has a juvenile record and is now 18 years old, they threaten to prosecute her to the fullest extent, with a maximum sentence of 19 years for aiding and abetting an armed robbery. Scared, she caves to pressure to plead guilty to lesser charges, and is sentenced to 6 years in a prison. Not defeated, she works hard in prison, gets her high school diploma, and is released a year early for good behavior.
出獄時23歲的她，開始重啟她的人生。由於她有犯罪記錄，並沒有工作經驗，她只能找到一份薪水很微薄的工作。可是不幸再次降臨，她得了流感，並住院。她的醫保並不是很好，這導致她很快因為付不起醫藥費帳單而付不起房租。她被趕出了公寓，開始住在車裡。她繼續工作，但因為晚上在車裡睡覺很吵，她開始服用安眠藥。最後她被警察發現睡在車裡（這是違法的），警察開始盤問她，可她睡得迷迷糊糊，她似乎聽不懂警察叫他出來的命令。然後她被警察粗暴的從車裡拉了出來，她掙扎著隨手抓住一個玻璃瓶打中一名警察並劃傷了他。那名警察十分生氣，他聲稱亞歷克西斯當時拿著槍指著他。當法官看到一個有犯罪記錄並流浪在外的假釋犯面臨的幾項指控時，他沒有質疑警察的說法，阿麗又被判了四年。。。
Upon release, she is 23. With only a high school degree and a criminal record, she can only take a low-paying job. After some months, she is hospitalized with the flu. Due to lacking medical insurance coverage and high bills, she falls behind on rent. She receives notice of eviction and eventually finds the sheriff throwing all her things onto the sidewalk, after which she is forced to live out of her car. She continues working but suffers from anxiety, and begins taking strong sleeping pills to help her sleep. She is eventually picked up by the police for illegally sleeping in her car. When they find her, she is heavily sedated and confused, and can’t answer their questions. When she doesn’t promptly comply with their order to get out of the car, they pull her out roughly. She struggles, hitting one of the policemen with a bottle and cutting him. When Alexis appears in court, the police officer claims she pointed a gun at him. The judge sees a homeless drug user with a criminal record and doesn’t question this claim, and she is sent back to prison for another 4 years.
這一次，她非常的沮喪和憤怒，徹底失去了回歸正常生活的希望，她徹底被打入這個社會的底端，我們稱之為賤民循環：流浪者，吸毒者，精神病患者和罪犯組成了這個階級，這些角色在很大程度上都是互相強化的，這也導致一旦成為其中一員，就很難打破這個循環。以後她會使用更強力的毒品，變得更加的絕望，並且實施更嚴重的犯罪。因為她逐漸意識到她已經被這個社會拋棄了，沒有人想幫她逃離這個賤民循環直至她凍死在街邊或是病死在監獄裡。這對於他們這種的人來說是一個悲劇，對整個社會來說卻是一大筆昂貴的負擔，從小麗第一次進入法庭開始，她就在消耗司法資源，納稅人為她的案件的司法行政, 監獄食宿，警衛安保買單——沒有人在其中受益，司法機器燃燒著大量財政資源，把越來越多的打入賤民循環。
At this point, Alexis has fallen through the gaps in our social safety net into a place inhabited by people who are often homeless, drug users, formerly incarcerated, or mentally ill. Each of these problems is mutually reinforcing, so manifesting any one of them is a stumble that can send you into this inescapable abyss. Alexis feels abused and abandoned by the world. She has lost all hope of leading a normal life. When released, she turns to harder drugs and more serious crimes.
Few people want to be here, and as much as it is a tragedy for people caught in this cycle, it is also an expensive burden on our society. Since Alexis’s first arrest, she has been consuming police and judicial resources, and taxpayers have been footing the bill. From the costs of housing and feeding inmates to the payroll for guards and parole officers, these are the costs of a service no one wants to be a customer of, and no one wants to fund. Yet we continue to throw more and more people into this abyss, incurring larger and larger financial costs.
阿麗的故事雖然是虛構的，但在美國貧窮的少數族裔社區中，她的故事平平無奇。這暴露了美國社會的種種問題：缺乏教育，住房，醫療保險和住房問題。他們代表了一個又一個我們的社會原本可以做到更好的機會。若是警察在公園發現和朋友玩鬧的阿麗，或是在車裡睡覺的她時，可以選擇只是警告一下她的話。她就不至於淪落至此了，在這些時候警察有選擇懲罰還是幫助的自由裁量權。如果在阿麗在她首次被捕後將她送入心理康復機構而不是監獄；給她提供醫保，讓她能接種流感疫苗；在她面臨無家可歸時給她提供基礎功能住房，同時提供精神康復和藥物成癮治療。她可能仍然過著穩定，安逸的生活。以上的種種措施，就像是防止普通人跌入社會底層賤民系統的安全網：精神康復治療，藥物濫用治療，改善教育，社工體系，醫保，基礎住房和食物保障。。。。
Prevention measures
Alexis is fictional, but in poor minority communities, her story is common and represents many missed opportunities for society to do better. If the police, who have great discretion to help or to punish, had simply chosen to give Alexis a warning at the park or when sleeping in the car, her story wouldn’t have ended like this. We could also have sent Alexis to a counselor instead of to prison after her first arrested, or provided her with health insurance when she had the flu or helped her retain her housing when she was evicted or sent her to mental health or drug treatment when she was picked up when homeless. If anyone of these had happened, she might still have had a stable, fulfilling life. We need to give children a better start to life and provide teens and adults with a better safety net, in order to break the cycle and prevent people and their children from falling into that inescapable abyss. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is also the most financially sound thing to do.
目前已有大量的研究證明，政府把公共資金花在構建社會「安全網」上面會有效減少犯罪率，從而節省公共開支。比如，我們在戒除毒品上每投資1美元，就可以在未來節省12美元的司法和醫療開支。而另一項研究發現，學生畢業率只要每提高1%，就將會節省約合3.38億美金的治安和司法運作開支。這些資料顯示，把資金投入到預防性治療上就可以減少犯罪的同時節省大量資金。
Many studies have shown that building a social safety net can reduce crime. One study found that every dollar invested in drug treatment yields $12 of savings in reducing future crime and health care expenses. Another found that just a 1% increase in graduation rates would lead to an estimated $338 million dollars in savings on corrections costs ($1.4 billion if you account for the cost to victims). Together, these studies show that investing in preventative care can effectively reduce crime while saving money.
然而，現在的我們在做的事是仍在不斷提高警隊和監獄的公共預算，犧牲「安全網」方面的開支，例如教育。大多數州在每個犯人身上花的錢比在每個學生上花得還要多。
Yet we continue to increase police and prison budgets at the expense of services like education. Most states spend more money per inmate than per student.
我們現在的體制把缺乏教育，貧困，流浪人口和精神疾病群體種種的社會問題全部丟給了警察，但是警察卻不是萬能的。他們缺乏醫護人員或是社工的專業訓練，他們是被授權對民眾使用暴力的公務人員。這就是為什麼精神病患被警察打死的概率相比起普通人高了16倍的原因——他們本應該留給精神科醫生和社工來搞定。在這些人死後，事情並沒有結束，他們的家人會遭受二次創傷。他們的孩子，貧困的單親家庭長大的孩子有更大的機會再次淪為賤民。
The police have become our 「solution」 for bad schools, poverty, inadequate healthcare, homelessness, mental illness, and drug abuse, even though police lack the tools and training to resolve these problems. And unlike paramedics and social workers, police are sanctioned to use violence against us. This is why a person with an untreated mental health issue is 16 times more likely to be killed by police than other members of the community. The story doesn’t end with their deaths. Their families suffer not only grief but also the loss of a parent and breadwinner. The children raised by the remaining single parent will have an even higher chance of falling into the cycle of poverty and crime.
不僅如此，司法和監獄系統在改造罪犯並使他們重返社會方面收效甚微。幾乎一半的獲釋囚犯在3年內重新入獄。 司法系統就像是酒店門口的旋轉門，像阿麗這樣的人會陷入其中，在出獄後面臨窘境，很快再次犯罪，二進宮三進宮。你看到了嗎？把他們關起來，並不能保證讓我們更安全。
Not only that, sending people to prison doesn’t make us safer. The justice system is not at all effective at rehabilitation and reintegration. Almost half of the released prisoners are back in prison within 3 years. The justice system is a revolving door that people like Alexis get stuck in, and locking them up doesn’t keep us safe.
的確，上述所謂的這些預防措施發揮作用需要一定的時間。然而，我們可以在一開始把錢投入到收效快，成效顯著的路徑上。例如，我們或許可以嘗試讓其他公務人員（比如社工和交通協管員）來處理學校巡邏，流浪漢，交通違規和噪音投訴等問題。據調查，目前在美國警察只花大約4%的工作時間去應對暴力犯罪，其餘時間，訓練有素裝備齊全的他們卻在處理鄰裡糾紛或是維護性的治安工作。這很大程度上浪費了警力資源，我們的方案可以把有限的警力解放出來，讓醫護人員，社工這樣的專業人員去解決問題。進一步，我們還可以讓警察自己承擔部分對他們提起的訴訟費用，這樣能減少開支和不必要的警察暴力。最後，我們可以把最初節省的資金轉移到經過驗證的替代方案上來（如教育和心理健康治療），從而逐步減少犯罪，所積攢更多經費將其用於進一步的替代方案上來。
But these solutions are slow! What about our safety in the meantime?
Yes, some of these preventative measures will take time to have an effect on crime rates. However, we could begin shifting the money in ways that should have an immediate, positive impact. We could begin by having other government staff, such as social workers or traffic patrollers, handle some of the police’s responsibilities--patrolling schools, dealing with homelessness, traffic infractions, and noise complaints. Police actually only spend about 4% of their time handling violent crime. Much of the remaining time is a poor use of police resources that could be better addressed by members of other departments with more suitable training and equipment. We could also make police personally responsible for paying a percentage of fees from lawsuits against them, which should reduce fees and unneeded violence (in 2019, false arrests, civil rights violations, and excessive force claims cost over $300M across the US). By shifting these initial savings to proven alternatives like education and mental health treatment, we can gradually reduce crime, creating more savings to funnel into more preventative care.
我們現在正在做的事就像是原本可以通過談判解決的一場紛爭，我們卻去召集軍隊去發動一場戰爭。或者說在抗擊新冠病毒時，我們投入大量資金去生產呼吸機而不是口罩一樣。我們放棄了早起幹預的手段，任憑問題惡化，到最後去拯救去收拾一個奄奄一息的爛攤子。在當下有限的預算和精力裡，我們必須做出選擇。我們是通過在建立越來越強大的警隊和司法體系還是把錢投給一些保障性，支持性的措施上，構建「安全網」呢？ 來保證社會中的每個人都有有學上，有病看，有能力自食其力為經濟發展做出貢獻呢？
OK, what can I do?
What we’re doing now is like fighting a war without first trying diplomacy, or dealing with coronavirus by allocating more money to ventilators and less to masks. We let chances at early intervention pass by, allowing problems to worsen until we are forced to handle them with the most urgent and severe methods. There is only so much money in the budget, so we have to make a choice. Do we deal with crime by spending more and more money on police and prisons, or do we allocate that money towards measures that actually reduce crime and leave people more educated, healthy, and able to contribute to the economy?
我們可以投票和捐款：
支持或資助教育和醫療，藥物 濫用治療，醫保和基本食物和住房相關的已經證明可以減少有效的方案上。
支持警察系統性的改革，縮減警隊預算，維持警隊輕量化動作，實行精神康復與社會支持替代監獄系統的轉移方案，推動公務人員專業化多樣化代替警察執行公務，停止現金保釋，改革檢查官制度，讓警察負起責任！！
請給你所在區域支持上述議題的議員投票！！
轉發本文！請用你的聲音和資助支持他們！！
What you can do is vote and donate.
Support better funding for education, mental health and drug abuse treatments, health insurance for all, affordable housing, and other initiatives that are proven to improve outcomes and decrease crime.
Support police reforms, smaller police budgets, diversion programs that redirect people from prison into treatment, 「unbundling」 the police and redistributing their duties to social workers and other government staff, ending cash bail, and electing reform prosecutors who will hold police accountable.
Use your voice and your money!
Vote for local representatives who support the above reforms!
Please share this article to encourage more people to support these reforms!
這大概是我寫過的最艱難的一篇文章，因為文章裡幾乎全部的內容對於我一個土生土長的中國人來說，是十分陌生的。而本文內容是源於我和我在美國寄宿家庭的華裔家媽，在我們支離破碎的中文和英語交流下，終於成稿，實屬不易。編者在其中發揮的作用是中美文化，中英語言之間的一道橋，基礎的翻譯早已被智能AI代替的當下，語言和文章框架上的重新解構才是最最困難的部分。文章的觀點不代表編者和春潮立場。文章作者是Alicia Chen（陳藹然），授權編者以段荊棘之名義在微信公眾平臺發表原創作品。
editor's note
This is probably the most difficult article I have written. Because as a native Chinese, almost all the content in this article is very strange to me. This article is originated from my ABC host-mom in the US. With our broken Chinese and English, it was finally drafted. It was not easy at all. The editor's role in a bridge between the Chinese and American culture, Chinese and English languages. Basic translation has long been replaced by intelligent AI, and the most difficult part is the deconstruction of language and article framework. The opinions of the article do not represent the editor's and Springtide's positions. The author of the article is Alicia Chen (陳藹然), authorizing the editor to publish original works on the WeChat public platform in the name of GingerDuan(段荊棘).
參考文獻：
Night Time Park Curfews and Park Closures
What is Prosecutorial Discretion?
Armed Robbery
美國超高入獄率的原因：檢察官強制嫌疑人達成認罪協議
趕走拖欠房租的租客的十步走
Homeless people couldn't sleep on many LA sidewalks
Diversion Programs Are Cheaper and More Effective Than Incarceration
Does Education Reduce Participation in Criminal Activities?
Education vs prison costs
Criminalization of Homelessness
What Defund the Police Actually Means
Study Finds Increased Incarceration Has Marginal-to-Zero Impact on Crime
The Misleading Math of 'Recidivism'
How Do the Police Actually Spend Their Time?
Policy Solutions to Ending Police Violence
Bail Reform
The Facts on Progressive Prosecutors