听力文本

JUDY WOODRUFF: Ken Mascara has been the sheriff of St. Lucie County in Florida for the past 20 years.He has seen funding for mental health facilities plummet. And, as a result, more and more mentally ill patients end up languishing behind bars.Tonight, he gives his Brief But Spectacular take on making county jails safer and smarter. This piece was filmed prior to the pandemic.

KEN MASCARA, St. Lucie County, Florida, Sheriff: Well, if you have a loved one that's suffering from mental illness, it would only take a split-second and a bad decision for them to end up in a county jail.

A couple of years ago, we had a -- I think he just turned 18 years old -- act up in a school. He was subsequently arrested for battery, I believe, brought to this facility. And he was severely autistic. He did not have parents. He was in a foster home.It took an enormous effort by all of our partners to get him removed from our jail into an in-patient treatment facility.Here's a kid that should have never been in our facility, never.

I'm the sheriff of St. Lucie County. I have been here for 20 years. Get a designated driver, if not, this holiday season, these might be the only lights that you see. Over the past two decades, we have seen funding from the legislature diminish to mental health inpatient and outpatient facilities and programs. So, people who do suffer from mental illness have no place to go.

For law enforcement agencies that deal with mental health individuals, they tend to bring them to jail, because there's no other place to bring them. Last year, it was roughly around 35 percent of our inmates that are on psychotropic medications.

We were never, ever in a position to handle such severity of mental health inmates. We do have a section of the jail carved out that our mental health inmates reside in. And, of course, we separate them from every other inmate. Because we are a detention facility and awaiting inmates to go to trial, we have some inmates that have been here five or six years with us during the pendency of their trial.

How do we shift jail beds to treatment beds? It's going to take money. It's going to take a committed governor, a committed legislature that funds these initiatives, that really addresses mental illness, as well as drug dependency.We have many programs here that we initiated that divert people out of our jail and, in general, out of the criminal justice system.

I think, in the long run, those will benefit not only the inmate, not only the criminal justice system, but our community. You know, though, uh, there's a sheriff -- I won't mention his name -- that always touted himself as being the toughest sheriff in America. I want to be known as one of the smartest sheriffs in America. My name is Ken Mascara, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on the tragedy of mentally ill in county jails.

重点解析

1.sheriff 警长

Robyn asked the deputy on duty if she could speak with Sheriff Adkins.

萝宾问值班警官她能否跟县治安官阿德金斯谈话awVg]d#_02%LArx%。

2.languish 受折磨

Pollard continues to languish in prison.

波拉德继续在牢里受折磨s|JKsP^e[0wb。

3.prior to 在……之前

There is evidence of agriculture in Africa prior to 3000 B.C.

有证据表明，公元前3000年以前，非洲就有了农业2lNWCE[lx.nh。

4.suffer from 患……病

About 70% of women suffer from premenstrual syndrome.

大约70%的妇女都患有经前综合症XJ,HZqEp]&-W1^&x。

5.subsequently 随后；后来

The original interview notes were subsequently lost.

采访记录原稿后来丢失了3yjPbVa2;I1kZL;pJF5[。

参考译文

朱迪·伍德拉夫:肯·马斯卡拉在过去20年里一直担任佛罗里达州圣露西县的警长t!&oE*aqk8。他目睹了用于精神卫生设施的资金锐减Tq.%3a^.S&jyx。结果，越来越多的精神病患者最终被关在监狱里X;X@*XcPJA0x。今晚，他将讲述他的《简短而精彩》相关故事，致力于让县监狱更安全、更智能ARS#q.@b2_;2K#k,。这段视频是在疫情大流行之前拍摄的CWefE3_RRC8!。

佛罗里达州圣露西县警长肯·马斯卡拉:嗯，如果你所爱的人患有精神疾病，只要一瞬间做出一个错误的决定，他们就会被送进县监狱ThHr1(r#.tW|un~Pm;8。

几年前，我们有一个孩子——我想他刚满18岁——在学校里胡闹bnDega&SiNI]%6j^+KP+。他后来因为殴打被捕，我想，被带到这个监狱机构里r)oOP-[N2)Zos+EDZdVt。他患有严重的自闭症Ne~&.UxONr|CQL9KB。他没有父母MrA]UuwdaJ)DlCR3p。他是在寄养家庭长大WXmp6i@V#[mlM)N4~。我们所有的合作伙伴付出了巨大的努力才把他从我们的监狱转移到住院治疗机构xcAHWq2,#S19q。这个孩子根本就不该进我们的监狱机构，绝对不该^M2]^#MPU)]mYEpF!。

我是圣露西县的警官RikuIlsr-sAk6m*7d。我在这里已经20年了[~oKPf*uTd)B[HTb]。找一个指定的司机, 如果没有，在这个假期，这些可能是你看到的唯一的灯光xkJsN1NSmAZz。在过去的二十年里，我们看到的来自立法机构的资金减少，用于精神健康住院与门诊的设施和项目资金减少Pfyg%N4fnh5。因此，患有精神疾病的人无处可去9LxkDQRXf1qfN.B5Y]。

对于处理精神健康问题的执法机构来说，他们倾向于把他们关进监狱，因为没有其他地方可以关押他们u7MK]gO7D&a。去年，大约有35%的犯人在服用精神药物-WQefm&_B&jR。

我们从未，从未有能力处理患有如此严重精神健康问题的囚犯i0D;1Rr8k_,AH6。我们确实在监狱里开辟了一块区域供精神健康的犯人居住tfcn]@C75o.GaieKAn5y。当然，我们把他们和其他犯人分开WZv|SuxfzrJPD。因为我们是拘留所，在等待囚犯接受审判，我们有一些囚犯在审判未决期间在我们这里待了五六年GmpNrNM*Y^2ompsUO6A。

我们怎么把监狱床位转换成治疗床位? 这需要钱29uyo#~*ykU=G.J*NcVr。这需要一位坚定的州长，一个坚定的立法机构来资助这些真正解决精神疾病和药物依赖问题的举措，我们在这里发起了很多项目，把人们从我们的监狱转移出来，总的来说，从刑事司法系统中转移出来XQj4.-R5uR6D2E@^kQkF。

我认为，从长远来看，这不仅有利于犯人，不仅有利于刑事司法系统，而且有利于我们的社会f3qZ[+]Lk)p[9。你知道，尽管有一位警长——我就不提他的名字了——总是吹嘘自己是美国最强硬的警长)41-yR._TEUEZ。我想成为全美最聪明的警长之一ZkR=m;Uc[LYbA。我叫肯·马斯卡拉，这是我的《简短而精彩》故事，讲述的是县监狱里精神病人的悲剧3Jw_Nw&24&。