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United States
美國版塊
Life locked up
封鎖的生活
Rotten porridge
腐爛的粥
America's prisons were in a poor state before COVID-19. Now they are worse.
疫情之前，美國的監獄狀況就很差，現在情況更糟了。
The inmates at Logan Correctional Centre, a women’s prison in rural Illinois, have to endure a lot.
洛根懲教中心是伊利諾斯州鄉下的一所女子監獄，里面的囚犯們忍受著巨大的痛苦。
The kitchens are infested with cockroaches.
廚房里到處都是蟑螂。
The ceilings are crumbling.
天花板正在搖搖欲墜。
Many of the buildings are full of black mould.
許多建筑物都長滿了黑色霉菌。
The showers and toilets often break down, and the plumbing occasionally backs up, pumping sewage onto the floors.
淋浴和廁所經常出現故障，管道時常會堵塞，把污水泵到地板上。
According to Lauren Stumblingbear, a 36-year-old former inmate who was released last July after serving nearly a decade for taking part in an armed robbery, perhaps craziest of all were the raccoons.
36歲的勞倫·斯頓布林熊之前是這里的一名囚犯，因參與武裝搶劫而服刑近10年，于去年7月獲釋。據她所說，也許最瘋狂的是浣熊。
The critters were living in the housing unit of the prison, she says.
她說，這些小動物住在監獄的房間里。
"They would come down through holes in the ceiling. "
“他們會從天花板上的洞里下來。”
From March of 2020, however, even the raccoons seemed mild compared with what prisoners had to cope with.
然而，從2020年3月開始，與囚犯們不得不應對的狀況相比，浣熊也顯得不那么糟糕了。
When covid-19 arrived, they were confined to their cells.
當疫情來臨時，她們被限制在自己的牢房里。
For the first two weeks they could not shower or make phone calls.
在最初的兩周里，她們不能洗澡，也不能打電話。
They could not use the commissary, because it was run by prisoners who were no longer allowed to move around, and had to eat sandwiches brought to their cells.
她們不能去食堂吃飯，因為食堂是由囚犯運營的，她們不能四處走動，只能在牢房里吃三明治。
“We sat there for months just not doing anything,” says Ms Stumblingbear.
“我們在那里坐了幾個月，什么也沒做，”斯頓布林貝爾女士說。
Covid ripped through the prison anyway.
新冠病毒還是在監獄里肆虐。
Two years later, the latest lockdown has only just been lifted.
兩年后，最近的封鎖才剛剛解除。
Conditions in America’s prisons were terrible even before the pandemic.
甚至在疫情之前，美國監獄的條件就已經很糟糕了。
Like Logan, many have been dilapidated, overcrowded and understaffed for decades.
像洛根一樣，許多監獄幾十年來一直破舊不堪，人滿為患，人手不足。
A federal investigation of Alabama prisons in 2019 exposed rape, murder and drug trafficking.
2019年對阿拉巴馬州監獄的聯邦調查揭露了強奸、謀殺和毒品販運事件。
Guards not only failed to prevent it but were sometimes implicated.
獄警不僅不阻止它，而且有時還會牽涉其中。
The pandemic has pushed the system close to collapse.
疫情已將該系統推向崩潰的邊緣。
“Inhumane conditions prevail in prisons and jails in the United States at all levels of government, federal, state and local,” says Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator from Georgia, who launched a working group on conditions in federal prisons in February.
來自佐治亞州的民主黨參議員喬恩·奧斯索夫說，“美國各級政府、聯邦、州和地方的監獄和監獄普遍存在不人道的條件?！彼?月份成立了一個關于聯邦監獄條件的工作組。
Even as the virus recedes, chronic staff shortages suggest conditions may not improve much.
即使病毒消退，由于長期的人員短缺，可能情況不會有太大改善。
According to data from the Department of Justice, in 2018 the number of deaths in state prisons hit the highest level since recording started in 2001.
根據司法部的數據，2018年，州監獄的死亡人數達到了自2001年開始記錄以來的最高水平。
Though illness accounted for the vast majority, homicides and suicides also set records.
雖然疾病占絕大多數，但他殺和自殺數量也創下了紀錄。
Preliminary data for 2020 show deaths in state and federal prisons increased by 46% over 2019—unsurprisingly, given how fast covid spread inside.
2020年的初步數據顯示，由于疫情在監獄內的傳播，州和聯邦監獄的死亡人數比2019年增加了46%，這并不令人意外。
Violence may well have increased too, but it is hard to tell, because state departments of corrections often do not release information about it (local jails, which are usually reserved for suspects awaiting trial, are even worse).
暴力事件很可能也有所增加，但這很難說，因為州懲戒部門經常不公布相關信息（地方監獄通常是為等待審判的嫌疑人預留的，情況更糟）。
So evidence is patchy.
所以證據是不完整的。
A single jail in St Louis had four riots last year, as prisoners protested about delays to their court hearings.
去年，圣路易斯的一所監獄發生了四起騷亂，原因是囚犯們抗議法庭聽證會被推遲。
One silver lining is that fewer people are in prison.
令人欣慰的是，入獄的人數減少了。
Data collated by the Prison Policy Initiative, a think-tank, showed that the total number of people in state and federal prisons fell by around 14% from January 2020 to December 2021, to the lowest level in decades.
智庫監獄政策倡議整理的數據顯示，從2020年1月到2021年12月，州和聯邦監獄的總人數下降了約14%，降至數十年來的最低水平。
That does not necessarily mean that the total number of people locked up has fallen by as much, however, since many have ended up serving their sentences in local jails instead, as prison authorities did not want to admit potentially infected people.
然而，這并不一定意味著被關押的總人數下降了同樣多，因為許多人最后會在當地監獄服刑，因為監獄當局不想接納潛在的感染者。
