2013年自考英语(二)课文译文:锁链囚队的复现

　　锁链囚队的复现

　　Eyewitnesses say it was a scene straight out of a black and white movie from the 1950s. As the sun rose over the fields of Huntsville, Alabama, in the American South, the convicts got down from the trucks that had brought them there. Watched over by guards with guns, they raised their legs in unison and made their way to the edge of the highway, Interstate 65. The BBC's Washington correspondent Clare Bolderson was there and she sent this report:

　　目击者说，这简直就是50年代某部黑白电影的一幕：太阳升起在美国南部阿拉巴马州享茨维尔市的田野上，一群罪犯从运送他们的卡车上下来。在持枪卫兵的监视下，这些囚犯迈着一致的步伐朝州际65号高速公路走去。英国广播公司的驻华盛顿记者克莱尔?博尔德森就在现场并发回如下报道：

　　"They wore white uniforms with the words "Chain Gang' on their backs and, in groups of five, were shackled together in leg irons joined by an eight-foot chain. The prisoners will work for up to 90 days on the gang: they'll clear ditches of weeds and mend fences along Alabama's main roads. While they are working on the gang, they’ll also live in some of the harshest prison conditions in the United States. There'll be no televisions or phone calls; many other day-to-day privileges will be denied.”

　　“他们穿着背部写有“ChainGang”的白色囚服，他们五人一组，用一条八英尺长的铁链把腿脚连在一起。这些囚犯要这样连在一起劳动多达90天：他们要清除布满杂草的排水沟，修复阿拉巴马主干道上的防护栏。在连在一起劳动期间，囚犯们还生活在美国监狱一些最为恶劣的环境中。他们没有电视，不能接打电话，许多日常生活的权力也被剥夺。”

　　The authorities in Alabama say there is a lot of support for the re-introduction of chain gangs in the State after a gap of 30 years (the last gangs were abolished in Georgia in the early 1960s). Many people believe it is an effective way to get criminals to pay back their debt to society.

　　阿拉巴马州当局声称，事隔30年之后，许多人赞成恢复锁链囚队这种刑罚(乔治亚州在60年代早期废除了最后一支锁链囚队)。许多人认为，这是让罪犯向社会赎罪的有效方法。

　　The prisoners stay shackled when they use toilets. They reacted sharply to the treatment they are given:

　　囚犯们去厕所时带着镣铐，他们对遭受的待遇反应强烈：

　　Prisoner one: "This is like a circus. A zoo. All chained here to a zoo. We're all animals now."

　　囚犯甲说：“这样对待我们就像马戏团，像动物园。所有的人被链子锁在这里，我们现在都是动物园的动物。”

　　Prisoner two: "It's degrading. It's embarrassing.” Prisoner three: "In chains. It's slavery!"

　　囚怨乙说：“这让人感到耻辱，这让人感到尴尬。” 囚犯丙说：“戴着铁链，十足的奴隶制!”

　　Six out of every ten prisoners in chains are black, which is why the chain gangs call up images of slavery in centuries gone by, when black people were brought from Africa in leg irons and made to work in plantations owned by white men. Not surprisingly, although three-quarters of the white population of Alabama supports chain gangs, only a small number of black people do. Don Claxton, spokesman for the State Government of Alabama, insists that the system is not racist:

　　用铁链锁在一起的囚犯60%是黑人，正是因为如此，锁链囚队让人想起过去几百年前奴隶制的影子：当时黑人们带着脚镣被白人们从非洲带来，强迫他们在白人的种植园里干活。这不足以为怪，因为阿拉巴马州有3/4的白人赞成带链服刑，而只有一小部分黑人不反对。阿拉巴马州政府支持这样做。发言人唐?克莱克斯顿坚持认为这种办法不是种族歧视。

　　"This isn't something that's done for racial reasons, for political reasons. This is something that's going to help save the people of Alabama tax money because they don't have to pay as many officers to work on the highways. And it's going to help clean up our highways and it's going to help clean up the State.”

　　“这样做并非是种族和政治原因。这样做是为了帮助阿拉巴马州人减少税金，因为他们不必负担工作在高速公路上那么多的官员。而且，这样做将有利于清理高速公路的卫生，也有利于清理全州的卫生。”

　　However, the re-introduction of these measures has caused a great deal of strong disagreement. Human rights organizations say that putting prisoners in chains is not only inhumane but also ineffective. Alvin Bronstein, member of the Civil Liberties Union, says that study after study has shown that you cannot prevent people from committing crimes by punishment or the threat of punishment: "What they will do is make prisoners more angry, more hostile, so that when they get out of prison, they will increase the level of their criminal behaviour.”

　　但是，恢复这些措施招致了许多人的非议。人权组织声称，给囚犯带上锁链既不人道也不起作用。“公民自由协会”会员阿尔文?布朗斯坦说，一次又一次的研究表明，用惩罚或用惩罚进行威胁并不能阻止人们犯罪。”用惩罚和用惩罚进行威胁会使罪犯更恼怒，更敌对，结果当他们出狱后，他们会变本加厉地进行犯罪活动。”

　　Civil liberties groups say that chaining people together doesn't solve the causes of crime, such as poverty or disaffection within society. What it does is punish prisoners for the ills of society. They say the practice takes the United States back to the Middle Ages, and that it is a shame to American society. But that’s not an argument likely to win favour among many people in the Deep South of the United States. Alabama's experiment is to be widened to include more prisoners, and other States, such as Arkansas and Arizona, will very probably introduce their own chain gang schemes.

　　“公民自由组织”认为，用锁链将犯人串在一起解决不了犯罪的根源，例如社会上的贫困与不满，这样做是为社会的罪恶而惩罚罪犯。这些组织说，这种做法把美国带回到了中世纪时代，是美国社会的耻辱。然而，这种观点不可能赢得美国南方腹地许多人的赞成。阿拉巴马州的这种尝试将会推广到更多的犯人身上，诸如阿肯色和亚利桑那等其他四州也很有可能推出自己的锁链囚队的计划。

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