美国国家公共电台 NPR North Dakota Prison Officials Think Outside The Box To Revamp Solitary Confinement

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

There are slightly more than 2 million people who are incarcerated¹ in the U.S. That is nearly equal to the entire population of the city of Houston. Among those prisoners, thousands serve time in solitary² confinement³, isolated⁴ in small, often windowless cells for 22 to 24 hours a day, sometimes for months, even years. This practice has been criticized as cruel and ineffective. North Dakota, though, is one state where the prison system is changing. Here's NPR's Cheryl Corley.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE⁵: Solitary confinement goes by many names. The hole, segregation⁶, the SHU - for special housing unit. Whatever the name, its designed purpose was to punish disruptive inmates⁸ who broke rules and to keep the prison safe by removing them from the general population.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRISON GATE OPENING)

CORLEY: As the gate opens at the prison in Bismarck, chief of security Joe Charvat walks over to the West Wing.

JOE CHARVAT: And this area used to house our administrative⁹ segregation unit which has now since been moved to another area.

CORLEY: That's their name for solitary confinement. Charvat says the solid metal doors of the cell were considered safer for staff, and there was little contact between corrections officers and those behind the doors. The penitentiary¹⁰'s warden¹¹ Colby Braun says for years North Dakota's isolation¹² unit operated like many others.

COLBY BRAUN: It was 23 hours a day lockdown. So you had one hour of recreation a day to include your shower. That was five days a week. So on the weekends, you were generally locked down for 24 hours. And that means you're in your cell. You do not come out for any reason.

CORLEY: Now things are different. There's much more recreation time. Prisoners spend several hours learning new skills. They focus on changing their behavior. North Dakota's director of corrections and rehabilitation¹³ Leann Bertsch is behind the change. Her inspiration came after a trip to Norway organized by U.S. prison reform groups. Bertsch called it a defining moment and decided¹⁴ to speed up changes already in the works.

LEANN BERTSCH: There is just such an overemphasis on punishment and punitiveness¹⁵. You know, Norway talks about punishment that works. And when they mean it to work, it's to actually make society safer by getting people to be law-abiding individuals and desist from future reoffending.

CORLEY: So North Dakota prison officials met to figure out how to do that. Bertsch says they worked to define what would land people in segregated¹⁶ housing in the first place.

BERTSCH: There was a lot of different behaviors that could get you in before. So we really narrowed it down.

CORLEY: They dropped minor¹⁷ infractions, like talking back to a corrections officer, and created a top 10 list of dangerous behaviors, like serious assault, using a weapon, and murder. The new name for the prison's segregated housing became Behavior Intervention¹⁸ Unit, or BIU. Clinical director Dr. Lisa Peterson says the goal is to help people succeed after they leave. She says it was clear the old way wasn't working.

LISA PETERSON: The idea that somebody's just going to sit there and think about what they did and magically know how to handle a situation differently in the future is not accurate.

CORLEY: The state penitentiary in Bismarck can house about 800 inmates. In late 2015, when North Dakota started making its change, there were 80 or 90 in isolation. On this day, there are only about 20. The people in the unit go through a mental health screening to determine in part whether they have any suicidal thoughts. They participate in group therapeutic¹⁹ sessions. They're taught skills like how to cope with anger. As correctional officers make their rounds, they talk with inmates about how they're doing. Skill building and rapport²⁰ building is big here.

BRAUN: One-zero-two, Barb²¹.

CORLEY: Warden Colby Braun walks into Room 102, one of the empty cells in the solitary unit. It measures 7 feet by 13. The door has a long, vertical²² window, plus a slot for food. Inside, there is a metal toilet and sink, a metal bed, a small metal desk and seat. Here's where it gets different. There are several electrical outlets²³ in the room. Some prisoners who own TVs or tablets are allowed to bring them in the cell. Another narrow, vertical window lets in light from outside.

BRAUN: So when you get closer to the end of the wing, when a person looks out, they can actually see cars going by.

CORLEY: Medical groups have issued strong warnings about how prolonged isolation causes human damage - depression, anxiety, a loss of contact with reality and suicide. The United Nations and other groups have called it torture and say in most cases solitary confinement should be banned. In North Dakota, the average stay for inmates, with some exceptions, is 30 to 45 days.

OLAY SILVA: My name's Olay Silva.

CORLEY: A few years ago, a prison stabbing put Silva in the old solitary unit for about six months.

SILVA: You're shut off from the world. You wait. You just sit there and wait.

CORLEY: Silva says it could get tense. Inmates would curse and try to destroy things. Correctional officers, he said, would ignore prisoners and not get things they needed.

SILVA: There's tit for tat stuff, you know? That's not really the case, you know, a lot now. It's, like, they reward you for being involved. You know, they don't let you sit back there no more and just basically dwell.

CORLEY: But changing the system was a hard sell. Some staff felt they'd be at risk, that violence would increase. Case manager David Roggenbuck oversees²⁴ the officers and the activities in the BIU. He used to be an officer in the old solitary unit, and at first was skeptical²⁵ about the change.

DAVID ROGGENBUCK: Kind of the mindset is, if you didn't like being in prison, don't come. Don't commit a crime. Don't come. You're here? Well, tough cookies. I've really looked at that, and, what does that accomplish?

CORLEY: Another staffer, Sergeant²⁶ Frantz Jean-Pierre, says now he gets to know the people in restricted housing on a more personal level, not just as some inmate⁷ locked up in a cell. He says the change has made a difference. In the past, he dealt with an incident on his shift at least three or four times a week.

FRANTZ JEAN-PIERRE: And, by an incident I mean, like, someone trying to commit suicide, or someone trying to flood their cell or being completely disorderly, stuff like that. We haven't had hardly any of that. So, I mean, everything's completely changed.

CORLEY: Corrections officials here admit that changing the prison's solitary confinement policy may be less difficult in a state with a smaller and more homogeneous prison population, and with fewer prison gangs. Even with the reform efforts, though, North Dakota officials say there are some prisoners too dangerous to eliminate segregated housing completely. Corrections director Bertsch says even so, prison has to be about providing an opportunity for change - so North Dakota's effort to use solitary confinement as little as possible and in a different way makes sense. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Bismarck, N.D.

1 incarcerated   

钳闭的

参考例句：

• They were incarcerated for the duration of the war. 战争期间，他们被关在狱中。 来自辞典例句
• I don't want to worry them by being incarcerated. 我不想让他们知道我被拘禁的事情。 来自电影对白

2 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

3 confinement   

n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限

参考例句：

• He spent eleven years in solitary confinement.他度过了11年的单独监禁。
• The date for my wife's confinement was approaching closer and closer.妻子分娩的日子越来越近了。

4 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

7 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。

8 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

10 penitentiary   

n.感化院；监狱

参考例句：

• He worked as a warden at the state penitentiary.他在这所州监狱任看守长。
• While he was in the penitentiary her father died and the family broke up.他坐牢的时候，她的父亲死了，家庭就拆散了。

11 warden   

n.监察员，监狱长，看守人，监护人

参考例句：

• He is the warden of an old people's home.他是一家养老院的管理员。
• The warden of the prison signed the release.监狱长签发释放令。

12 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

13 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

15 punitiveness   

惩办主义

参考例句：

16 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

17 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

18 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

19 therapeutic   

adj.治疗的，起治疗作用的；对身心健康有益的

参考例句：

• Therapeutic measures were selected to fit the patient.选择治疗措施以适应病人的需要。
• When I was sad,music had a therapeutic effect.我悲伤的时候，音乐有治疗效力。

20 rapport   

n.和睦，意见一致

参考例句：

• She has an excellent rapport with her staff.她跟她职员的关系非常融洽。
• We developed a high degree of trust and a considerable personal rapport.我们发展了高度的互相信任和不错的私人融洽关系。

21 barb   

n.（鱼钩等的）倒钩，倒刺

参考例句：

• The barb of his wit made us wince.他那锋芒毕露的机智使我们退避三舍。
• A fish hook has a barb to prevent the fish from escaping after being hooked.鱼钩上都有一个倒钩以防上了钩的鱼逃走。

22 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

23 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

24 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

25 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

26 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？