Hello, NAACP! Ah, it's good to be back. How you all doing today? You doing fine? 你们好，NAACP的朋友们！啊，真高兴又回来了。大家今天好吗？都还好吧？
Audience: Yes! 观众：好！
President Obama: You look fine. All right, everybody have a seat. I got some stuff to say. I've got some stuff to say. 奥巴马总统：你们看起来精神不错。好了，大家请坐。我有话要说。我有话要说。
Audience Member: We love you! 观众成员：我们爱你！
President Obama: I love you back. You know that. 奥巴马总统：我也爱你们。你们知道的。
So, see, now, whenever people have, like, little signs, you all got to write it bigger, because I'm getting old now. And I like that picture of me. That's very nice. Thank you. 所以呢，现在人们举的那些小牌子啊，你们得写大一点，因为我现在年纪大了，眼神不好了。我挺喜欢那张我的照片的，真不错。谢谢。
Let's get something out of the way up front. I am not singing today. 我先把话说在前面吧。我今天不唱歌。
Audience: Awww -- 观众：唉——
President Obama: Not singing. Although I will say your board sang to me as I came in for the photograph. So I know there's some good voices in the auditorium. 奥巴马总统：不唱了。不过我得说，刚才进来合影的时候，你们的董事会给我唱了歌。所以我知道这礼堂里有不少好嗓子。
Let me also say what everybody knows but doesn't always want to say out loud -- you all would rather have Michelle here. I understand. I don't blame you. But I will do my best to fill her shoes. And she sends everybody her love. And Malia and Sasha say hi, as well. 我还要说一件大家都心知肚明但不太好意思说出来的事——你们其实更想见到米歇尔。我懂的。我不怪你们。但我会尽力替她站好这班岗。她让我向大家转达她的爱。玛丽亚和萨莎也向大家问好。
I want to thank your chair, Roslyn Brock. I want to thank your president, Cornell Brooks. I want to thank your Governor, Tom Wolf, who's doing outstanding work and was here. The Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, who's been a great friend and ally. Governor Dan Malloy of Connecticut, who's here today. And some outstanding members of Congress who are here. I want to just say thank you to all of you for your love, for your support, but most importantly, for the work that you are doing in your communities all across the country every single day. 我要感谢你们的主席罗斯林·布罗克。感谢你们的会长康奈尔·布鲁克斯。感谢你们的州长汤姆·沃尔夫，他做得非常出色，刚才也在场。感谢费城市长迈克尔·纳特，他一直是我的好朋友和盟友。感谢康涅狄格州州长丹·马洛伊，他今天也在座。还有在座的几位杰出的国会议员。我只想对你们所有人说声谢谢，感谢你们的爱，感谢你们的支持，但最重要的是，感谢你们每一天在全国各地的社区中所做的工作。
It's not always received with a lot of fanfare. Sometimes it's lonely work; sometimes it's hard work; sometimes it's frustrating work. But it's necessary work. And it builds on a tradition of this organization that reshaped the nation. 这份工作并不总是轰轰烈烈的。有时是孤独的工作；有时是艰苦的工作；有时是令人沮丧的工作。但这是必要的工作。它建立在这个组织重塑国家的传统之上。
For 106 years, the NAACP has worked to close the gaps between the words of our founding that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights -- those words try to match those with the realities that we live each and every day. 106年来，全国有色人种协进会一直致力于弥合我们建国誓言与现实之间的差距——我们人人生而平等，造物主赋予我们某些不可剥夺的权利——你们努力让这些誓言与我们每天生活的现实相契合。
In your first century, this organization stood up to lynching and Jim Crow and segregation; helped to shepherd a Civil Rights Act and a Voting Rights Act. I would not be here, and so many others would not be here, without the NAACP. 在第一个百年里，这个组织勇敢对抗私刑、吉姆·克劳法和种族隔离；推动通过了《民权法案》和《选举权法案》。如果没有NAACP，我不会站在这里，许许多多的人也不会站在这里。
In your second century, we've worked together to give more of our children a shot at a quality education; to help more families rise up out of poverty; to protect future generations from environmental damage; to create fair housing; to help more workers find the purpose of a good job. And together, we've made real progress -- including a My Brother's Keeper initiative to give more young people a fair shot in life; including the passage of a law that declares health care is not a privilege for the few, but a right for all of us. 在第二个百年里，我们共同努力，让更多孩子有机会接受优质教育；帮助更多家庭摆脱贫困；保护子孙后代免受环境破坏；推动公平住房；帮助更多劳动者找到好工作的意义。我们共同取得了实实在在的进展——包括"守护我的兄弟"倡议，为更多年轻人提供公平的人生机遇；包括通过了一项法律，宣告医疗保健不是少数人的特权，而是我们所有人的权利。
We made progress, but our work is not done. By just about every measure, the life chances for black and Hispanic youth still lag far behind those of their white peers. Our kids, America's children, so often are isolated, without hope, less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to earn a college degree, less likely to be employed, less likely to have health insurance, less likely to own a home. 我们取得了进展，但我们的工作尚未完成。几乎从任何指标来看，黑人和拉丁裔青年的人生机遇仍然远远落后于白人同龄人。我们的孩子，美国的孩子们，常常被孤立，缺乏希望，高中毕业的可能性更低，获得大学学位的可能性更低，就业的可能性更低，拥有医疗保险的可能性更低，拥有住房的可能性也更低。
Part of this is a legacy of hundreds of years of slavery and segregation, and structural inequalities that compounded over generations. It did not happen by accident. 部分原因是数百年奴隶制和种族隔离的遗留问题，以及代代累积的结构性不平等。这并非偶然发生的。
Partly it's a result of continuing, if sometimes more subtle, bigotry -- whether in who gets called back for a job interview, or who gets suspended from school, or what neighborhood you are able to rent an apartment in -- which, by the way, is why our recent initiative to strengthen the awareness and effectiveness of fair housing laws is so important. So we can't be satisfied or not satisfied until the opportunity gap is closed for everybody in America. Everybody. 部分原因是持续存在的、有时更隐蔽的偏见——无论是谁能接到面试回复电话，谁会被学校停课，或者你能在哪个社区租到公寓——顺便说一句，这就是为什么我们最近推出的加强公平住房法意识和效力的倡议如此重要。所以，在每个人的机会鸿沟被弥合之前，我们不能满足，不能罢休。为了每一个美国人。每一个人。
But today, I want to focus on one aspect of American life that remains particularly skewed by race and by wealth, a source of inequity that has ripple effects on families and on communities and ultimately on our nation -- and that is our criminal justice system. 但今天，我想聚焦于美国生活中一个仍然因种族和财富而严重失衡的方面，一个对家庭、社区乃至我们整个国家都产生连锁反应的不公之源——那就是我们的刑事司法系统。
Now, this is not a new topic. I know sometimes folks discover these things like they just happened. There's a long history of inequity in the criminal justice system in America. When I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked to make sure that we had videotaping of interrogations because there were some problems there. 这不是一个新话题。我知道有时候人们好像刚刚才发现这些问题。美国刑事司法系统中的不公由来已久。我还在伊利诺伊州议会任职时，我们就推动了讯问录像制度，因为当时存在一些问题。
We set up racial profiling laws to prevent the kind of bias in traffic stops that too many people experience. Since my first campaign, I've talked about how, in too many cases, our criminal justice system ends up being a pipeline from underfunded, inadequate schools to overcrowded jails. 我们制定了种族貌相法，以防止太多人在交通临检中遭遇的那种偏见。从我第一次竞选开始，我就一直在说，在太多情况下，我们的刑事司法系统最终成了一条从资金不足、条件恶劣的学校通往人满为患的监狱的流水线。
What has changed, though, is that, in recent years the eyes of more Americans have been opened to this truth. Partly because of cameras, partly because of tragedy, partly because the statistics cannot be ignored, we can't close our eyes anymore. And the good news -- and this is truly good news -- is that good people of all political persuasions are starting to think we need to do something about this. 然而，有所改变的是，近年来更多美国人的眼睛被这一真相所唤醒。部分是因为摄像头，部分是因为悲剧，部分是因为统计数据不容忽视，我们再也无法视而不见了。而好消息是——这确实是好消息——不同政治立场的有识之士都开始认为我们需要对此采取行动。
So let's look at the statistics. The United States is home to 5 percent of the world's population, but 25 percent of the world's prisoners. Think about that. Our incarceration rate is four times higher than China's. We keep more people behind bars than the top 35 European countries combined. And it hasn't always been the case -- this huge explosion in incarceration rates. 那么让我们看看统计数据。美国人口占世界人口的5%，但囚犯人数却占世界的25%。想想看。我们的监禁率是中国的四倍。我们关押的人数比欧洲排名前35的国家加起来还要多。而情况并非一直如此——监禁率的这种暴涨并非由来已久。
In 1980, there were 500,000 people behind bars in America -- half a million people in 1980. I was in college in 1980. Many of you were not born in 1980 -- that's okay. I remember 1980 -- 500,000. Today there are 2.2 million. It has quadrupled since 1980. Our prison population has doubled in the last two decades alone. 1980年，美国有50万人在狱中——1980年是50万人。1980年我还在上大学。你们中许多人1980年还没出生——没关系。我记得1980年——50万。而今天是220万。自1980年以来翻了两番。仅在过去二十年里，我们的监狱人口就翻了一番。
Now, we need to be honest. There are a lot of folks who belong in prison. If we're going to deal with this problem and the inequities involved then we also have to speak honestly. There are some folks who need to be in jail. They may have had terrible things happen to them in their lives. We hold out the hope for redemption, but they've done some bad things. Murderers, predators, rapists, gang leaders, drug kingpins -- we need some of those folks behind bars. Our communities are safer, thanks to brave police officers and hardworking prosecutors who put those violent criminals in jail. 现在，我们需要坦诚面对。有很多人确实应该被关进监狱。如果我们要解决这个问题以及其中的不公，我们也必须实话实说。有些人确实应该坐牢。他们可能在生活中遭遇了不幸。我们抱有救赎的希望，但他们确实犯下了严重的罪行。杀人犯、掠夺者、强奸犯、帮派头目、毒枭——这些人确实需要被关起来。我们的社区更安全了，这要感谢勇敢的警察和辛勤工作的检察官，他们将那些暴力罪犯绳之以法。
And the studies show that up to a certain point, tougher prosecutors and stiffer sentences for these violent offenders contributed to the decline in violent crime over the last few decades. Although the science also indicates that you get a point of diminishing returns. 研究表明，在一定程度上，对这些暴力罪犯采取更严厉的起诉和更长的刑期，确实对过去几十年暴力犯罪率的下降有所贡献。尽管科学研究也表明，这会达到一个收益递减的临界点。
But it is important for us to recognize that violence in our communities is serious and that historically, in fact, the African American community oftentimes was under-policed rather than over-policed. Folks were very interested in containing the African American community so it couldn't leave segregated areas, but within those areas there wasn't enough police presence. 但我们必须认识到，我们社区中的暴力问题是严重的，而且从历史上看，事实上，非裔美国人社区往往是警力不足而非警力过剩。人们过去很热衷于把非裔美国人社区控制在隔离区内，不让他们离开，但在那些区域内部，警力却远远不够。
But here's the thing: Over the last few decades, we've also locked up more and more nonviolent drug offenders than ever before, for longer than ever before. And that is the real reason our prison population is so high. In far too many cases, the punishment simply does not fit the crime. If you're a low-level drug dealer, or you violate your parole, you owe some debt to society. You have to be held accountable and make amends. But you don't owe 20 years. You don't owe a life sentence. That's disproportionate to the price that should be paid. 但问题是：在过去几十年里，我们也把越来越多的非暴力毒品犯罪者关了起来，刑期比以往任何时候都长。而这才是我们监狱人口如此庞大的真正原因。在太多情况下，惩罚与罪行完全不相称。如果你是一个低级别的毒贩，或者违反了假释，你确实欠社会一笔债。你必须承担责任，做出补偿。但你不该被判20年。不该被判终身监禁。这与应受的惩罚不成比例。
And by the way, the taxpayers are picking up the tab for that price. Every year, we spend $80 billion to keep folks incarcerated -- $80 billion. Now, just to put that in perspective, for $80 billion, we could have universal preschool for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old in America. That's what $80 billion buys. 顺便说一句，这笔费用是由纳税人买单的。每年，我们要花费800亿美元来关押犯人——800亿美元啊。换个角度来看，用这800亿美元，我们可以为美国每个3岁和4岁的孩子提供普及学前教育。这就是800亿美元能买到的东西。
For $80 billion, we could double the salary of every high school teacher in America. For $80 billion, we could finance new roads and new bridges and new airports, job training programs, research and development. We're about to get in a big budget debate in Washington -- what I couldn't do with $80 billion. It's a lot of money. For what we spend to keep everyone locked up for one year, we could eliminate tuition at every single one of our public colleges and universities. 用这800亿美元，我们可以让美国每位高中教师的工资翻一番。用这800亿美元，我们可以资助修建新的道路、桥梁、机场，开展职业培训项目，进行研究与开发。我们马上就要在华盛顿展开一场激烈的预算辩论——要是有800亿美元，我能做的事可太多了。这可是一大笔钱。我们花在关押所有人一年上的钱，足以让所有公立大学和学院免学费。
As Republican Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul has said -- no, and to his credit, he's been consistent on this issue -- imprisoning large numbers of nonviolent drug offenders for long periods of time, "costs the taxpayers money, without making them any safer." 正如共和党参议员、总统候选人兰德·保罗所说——而且值得称赞的是，他在这个问题上一直立场一致——大量关押非暴力毒品犯罪者，"花了纳税人的钱，却没有让他们更安全"。
Roughly one-third of the Justice Department's budget now goes toward incarceration -- one-third. And there are outstanding public servants at our Justice Department, starting with our outstanding Attorney General, Loretta Lynch -- and we've got some great prosecutors here today -- and they do outstanding work -- so many of them. 目前，司法部约三分之一的预算用于监禁——三分之一啊。我们司法部有许多杰出的公务员，从我们出色的司法部长洛雷塔·林奇开始——今天在座也有一些优秀的检察官——他们工作非常出色——太多人了。
But every dollar they have to spend keeping nonviolent drug offenders in prison is a dollar they can't spend going after drug kingpins, or tracking down terrorists, or hiring more police and giving them the resources that would allow them to do a more effective job community policing. 但他们花在关押非暴力毒品犯罪者上的每一美元，都不能用于追捕毒枭，不能用于追踪恐怖分子，不能用于招募更多警察并为他们提供资源，让他们能够更有效地开展社区警务工作。
And then, of course, there are costs that can't be measured in dollars and cents. Because the statistics on who gets incarcerated show that by a wide margin, it disproportionately impacts communities of color. African Americans and Latinos make up 30 percent of our population; they make up 60 percent of our inmates. About one in every 35 African American men, one in every 88 Latino men is serving time right now. Among white men, that number is one in 214. 当然，还有无法用金钱衡量的代价。因为关于谁被监禁的统计数据显示，在很大程度上，有色人种社区受到的影响不成比例。非裔美国人和拉丁裔占我们人口的30%；却占囚犯的60%。目前，大约每35名非裔美国男性中就有一人在服刑，每88名拉丁裔男性中就有一人在服刑。而在白人男性中，这个比例是214分之一。
The bottom line is that in too many places, black boys and black men, Latino boys and Latino men experience being treated differently under the law. 归根结底，在太多地方，黑人男孩和黑人男性、拉丁裔男孩和拉丁裔男性在法律之下遭受着不同的对待。
And I want to be clear -- this is not just anecdote. This is not just barbershop talk. A growing body of research shows that people of color are more likely to be stopped, frisked, questioned, charged, detained. African Americans are more likely to be arrested. They are more likely to be sentenced to more time for the same crime. And one of the consequences of this is, around one million fathers are behind bars. Around one in nine African American kids has a parent in prison. 我要明确一点——这不是传闻。这不是理发店闲聊。越来越多的研究表明，有色人种更有可能被拦截、搜身、盘问、指控、拘留。非裔美国人更有可能被逮捕。对于同样的罪行，他们更有可能被判更长的刑期。而这带来的后果之一是，大约有一百万父亲身陷囹圄。大约每九个非裔美国孩子中就有一个的父母在监狱里。
What is that doing to our communities? What's that doing to those children? Our nation is being robbed of men and women who could be workers and taxpayers, could be more actively involved in their children's lives, could be role models, could be community leaders, and right now they're locked up for a non-violent offense. 这对我们的社区造成了什么影响？对那些孩子造成了什么影响？我们的国家正在失去那些本可以成为劳动者和纳税人的男男女女，他们本可以更积极地参与孩子的生活，本可以成为榜样，本可以成为社区领袖，而现在，他们却因为非暴力犯罪而被关在监狱里。
So our criminal justice system isn't as smart as it should be. It's not keeping us as safe as it should be. It is not as fair as it should be. Mass incarceration makes our country worse off, and we need to do something about it. 所以我们的刑事司法系统不够明智。它没有让我们足够安全。它也不够公平。大规模监禁让我们的国家变得更糟，我们必须对此采取行动。
But here's the good news. 但好消息来了。
Audience Member: All right, good news. 观众成员：好啊，好消息。
President Obama: Good news. Don't get me preaching now. I am feeling more hopeful today because even now, when, let's face it, it seems like Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on anything -- a lot of them agree on this. In fact, today, back in Washington, Republican senators from Utah and Texas are joining Democratic senators from New Jersey and Rhode Island to talk about how Congress can pass meaningful criminal justice reform this year. That's good news. That is good news. Good news. 奥巴马总统：好消息。别让我开始布道啊。我今天感到更有希望了，因为即使在现在，说实话，虽然共和党人和民主党人似乎在任何事情上都无法达成一致——但在这件事上，很多人意见一致。事实上，今天，就在华盛顿，来自犹他州和得克萨斯州的共和党参议员正与来自新泽西州和罗德岛州的民主党参议员一起，讨论国会如何在今年通过有意义的刑事司法改革。这是好消息。这真是好消息。好消息。
That doesn't happen very often. And it's not just senators. This is a cause that's bringing people in both houses of Congress together. It's created some unlikely bedfellows. You've got Van Jones and Newt Gingrich. You've got Americans for Tax Reform and the ACLU. You've got the NAACP and the Koch brothers. No, you've got to give them credit. You've got to call it like you see it. There are states from Texas and South Carolina to California and Connecticut who have acted to reduce their prison populations over the last five years and seen their crime rates fall. That's good news. 这种情况并不常见。而且不仅仅是参议员们。这项事业正在让国会两院的人走到一起。它催生了一些意想不到的盟友组合。范·琼斯和纽特·金里奇站在一起了。美国税制改革协会和美国公民自由联盟站在一起了。NAACP和科赫兄弟站在一起了。不，你们得承认他们的功劳。事实就是事实。从得克萨斯州、南卡罗来纳州到加利福尼亚州、康涅狄格州，许多州在过去五年里采取行动减少了监狱人口，同时犯罪率也下降了。这是好消息。
My Administration has taken steps on our own to reduce our federal prison population. So I signed a bill reducing the 100-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. I've commuted the sentences of dozens of people sentenced under old drug laws that we now recognize were unfair, and yesterday I announced that I'm commuting dozens more. 本届政府也自行采取措施减少了联邦监狱人口。我签署了一项法案，缩小了快克可卡因与粉末可卡因之间100:1的量刑差距。我已经为数十名根据我们现在认为不公的旧毒品法被判刑的人减刑，昨天我又宣布将再为数十人减刑。
Under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder -- now continued by Loretta Lynch -- federal prosecutors got what he called "Smart on Crime," which is refocusing efforts on the worst offenders, pursuing mandatory minimum sentences 20 percent less often than they did the year before. The idea is you don't always have to charge the max. To be a good prosecutor, you need to be proportionate. And it turns out that we're solving just as many cases and there are just as many plea bargains, and it's working. It's just that we've eliminated some of the excess. 在埃里克·霍尔德司法部长的领导下——现在由洛雷塔·林奇继续推进——联邦检察官实施了他所谓的"智慧打击犯罪"策略，将工作重心重新放在最严重的罪犯身上，寻求强制性最低刑期的比例比前一年减少了20%。理念是，你不必总是指控最重的罪名。要成为一名好的检察官，需要有分寸感。结果是，我们破案的数量一样多，认罪协商的数量也一样多，而且这很有效。我们只是消除了一些过度的做法。
And recently, something extraordinary happened. For the first time in 40 years, America's crime rate and incarceration rate both went down at the same time. That happened last year. 最近，发生了一件非同寻常的事。40年来第一次，美国的犯罪率和监禁率同时下降了。这是去年发生的。
So there's some momentum building for reform. There's evidence mounting for why we need reform. Now I want to spend the rest of my time just laying out some basic principles, some simple ideas for what reform should look like, because we're just at the beginning of this process and we need to make sure that we stay with it. And I'm going to focus on what happens in three places -- in the community, in the courtroom, and in the cell block. 所以改革的势头正在形成。改革的必要性的证据也在不断累积。现在，我想用剩下的时间阐述一些基本原则，一些关于改革应该是什么样子的简单想法，因为我们只是处于这个进程的开端，我们需要确保坚持下去。我将聚焦于三个地方的改革——社区、法庭和牢房。
So I want to begin with the community because I believe crime is like any other epidemic -- the best time to stop it is before it even starts. And I'm going to go ahead and say what I've said a hundred times before or a thousand times before, and what you've heard me say before, if we make investments early in our children, we will reduce the need to incarcerate those kids. 我想从社区谈起，因为我相信犯罪就像任何其他流行病一样——最好的阻止时机是在它发生之前。我要再说一遍我已经说过几百遍、几千遍的话，也是你们听过我说的话：如果我们及早投资于我们的孩子，我们就能减少监禁那些孩子的需要。
So one study found that for every dollar we invest in pre-K, we save at least twice that down the road in reduced crime. Getting a teenager a job for the summer costs a fraction of what it costs to lock him up for 15 years. Investing in our communities makes sense. It saves taxpayer money if we are consistent about it, and if we recognize that every child deserve opportunity -- not just some, not just our own. 一项研究发现，我们在学前教育上每投入一美元，日后在减少犯罪方面就能省下至少两倍的钱。给一个青少年找一份暑期工作的成本，只是把他关上15年成本的零头。投资于我们的社区是明智之举。如果我们持之以恒，如果我们认识到每个孩子都应该享有机会——不只是一部分孩子，不只是我们自己的孩子——这就能为纳税人省钱。
What doesn't make sense is treating entire neighborhoods as little more than danger zones where we just surround them. We ask police to go in there and do the tough job of trying to contain the hopelessness when we are not willing to make the investments to help lift those communities out of hopelessness. That's not just a police problem; that's a societal problem. 不合理的是，把整个社区当作不过是危险地带，仅仅把它们包围起来。我们让警察进去做那份艰难的工作，试图遏制绝望，而我们却不愿意做出投资来帮助那些社区走出绝望。这不只是警察的问题；这是整个社会的问题。
Places like West Philly, or West Baltimore, or Ferguson, Missouri -- they're part of America, too. They're not separate. They're part of America like anywhere else. The kids there are American kids, just like your kids and my kids. So we've got to make sure boys and girls in those communities are loved and cherished and supported and nurtured and invested in. And we have to have the same standards for those children as we have for our own children. 像西费城、西巴尔的摩、密苏里州弗格森这样的地方——它们也是美国的一部分。它们不是独立的。它们和其他任何地方一样是美国的一部分。那里的孩子也是美国孩子，就像你们的孩子和我的孩子一样。所以我们必须确保那些社区的男孩女孩都被爱着、被珍惜着、被支持着、被培养着、被投资着。我们必须对那些孩子和对我们自己的孩子抱有同样的标准。
If you are a parent, you know that there are times where boys and girls are going to act out in school. And the question is, are we letting principals and parents deal with one set of kids and we call the police on another set of kids. That's not the right thing to do. 如果你是家长，你就知道，男孩女孩在学校里总有调皮捣蛋的时候。问题是，我们是不是让校长和家长来处理一部分孩子，而对另一部分孩子却叫来警察。这是不对的。
We've got to make sure our juvenile justice system remembers that kids are different. Don't just tag them as future criminals. Reach out to them as future citizens. 我们必须确保我们的少年司法系统记住，孩子是不同的。不要只把他们贴上未来罪犯的标签。要把他们当作未来的公民来培养。
And even as we recognize that police officers do one of the toughest, bravest jobs around -- and as we do everything in our power to keep those police officers safe on the job -- I've talked about this -- we have to restore trust between our police and some of the communities where they serve. 即使我们认识到警察做着最艰难、最勇敢的工作之一——而且我们正尽一切努力保护警察在工作中的安全——我也谈过这个问题——我们必须重建警察与他们所服务的一些社区之间的信任。
And a good place to start is making sure communities around the country adopt the recommendations from the task force I set up -- that included law enforcement, but also included young people from New York and from Ferguson, and they were able to arrive at a consensus around things like better training, better data collection -- to make sure that policing is more effective and more accountable, but is also more unbiased. 一个好的起点是确保全国各地的社区采纳我组建的工作组提出的建议——工作组中不仅有执法人员，还有来自纽约和弗格森的年轻人，他们就更好的培训、更好的数据收集等事项达成了共识——以确保警务工作更有效、更负责任，同时也更公正。
So these are steps in the community that will lead to fewer folks being arrested in the first place. Now, they won't eliminate crime entirely. There's going to be crime. That's why the second place we need to change is in the courtroom. 这些是在社区层面采取的措施，从一开始就能减少被捕的人数。当然，它们不能完全消除犯罪。犯罪还是会有。这就是为什么我们需要改革的第二个地方是法庭。
For nonviolent drug crimes, we need to lower long mandatory minimum sentences -- or get rid of them entirely. Give judges some discretion around nonviolent crimes so that, potentially, we can steer a young person who has made a mistake in a better direction. 对于非暴力毒品犯罪，我们需要缩短长期强制性最低刑期——或者完全废除它们。给予法官在非暴力犯罪方面一定的自由裁量权，这样我们就有可能引导一个犯了错的年轻人走上更好的道路。
We should pass a sentencing reform bill through Congress this year. We need to ask prosecutors to use their discretion to seek the best punishment, the one that's going to be most effective, instead of just the longest punishment. We should invest in alternatives to prison, like drug courts and treatment and probation programs -- which ultimately can save taxpayers thousands of dollars per defendant each year. 我们应该在今年让国会通过量刑改革法案。我们需要要求检察官运用他们的自由裁量权，寻求最恰当的、最有效的惩罚，而不是仅仅寻求最长的刑期。我们应该投资于监禁的替代方案，比如毒品法庭、治疗和缓刑项目——这些最终每年可以为每名被告节省数千美元的纳税人资金。
Now, even if we're locking up fewer people, even if we are reforming sentencing guidelines, as I've said before, some criminals still deserve to go to jail. And as Republican Senator John Cornyn has reminded us, "virtually all of the people incarcerated in our prisons will eventually someday be released." And that's why the third place we need to reform is in the cell block. 现在，即使我们减少了关押人数，即使我们改革了量刑指南，正如我之前所说，有些罪犯仍然应该坐牢。正如共和党参议员约翰·科宁提醒我们的，"几乎所有在我们监狱里的人最终都会有一天被释放。"这就是为什么我们需要改革的第三个地方是牢房。
So on Thursday, I will be the first sitting President to visit a federal prison. And I'm going to shine a spotlight on this issue, because while the people in our prisons have made some mistakes -- and sometimes big mistakes -- they are also Americans, and we have to make sure that as they do their time and pay back their debt to society that we are increasing the possibility that they can turn their lives around. 所以周四，我将成为第一位访问联邦监狱的在任总统。我将把聚光灯投向这个问题，因为虽然我们监狱里的人犯了一些错误——有时是大错——但他们也是美国人，我们必须确保，在他们服刑、偿还对社会的债务时，我们正在增加他们改过自新的可能性。
That doesn't mean that we will turn everybody's life around. That doesn't mean there aren't some hard cases. But it does mean that we want to be in a position in which if somebody in the midst of imprisonment recognizes the error of their ways, is in the process of reflecting about where they've been and where they should be going, we've got to make sure that they're in a position to make the turn. 这并不意味着我们能让每个人都改过自新。这并不意味着没有一些棘手的案例。但这确实意味着，如果有人在监禁期间认识到自己的错误，开始反思自己走过的路和应该走的路，我们必须确保他们有机会做出改变。
And that's why we should not tolerate conditions in prison that have no place in any civilized country. We should not be tolerating overcrowding in prison. We should not be tolerating gang activity in prison. We should not be tolerating rape in prison. And we shouldn't be making jokes about it in our popular culture. That's no joke. These things are unacceptable. 这就是为什么我们不应该容忍监狱中任何文明国家都不应有的状况。我们不应该容忍监狱中的过度拥挤。我们不应该容忍监狱中的帮派活动。我们不应该容忍监狱中的强奸。我们不应该在流行文化中拿这些开玩笑。这一点都不好笑。这些事情是不可接受的。
What's more, I've asked my Attorney General to start a review of the overuse of solitary confinement across American prisons. The social science shows that an environment like that is often more likely to make inmates more alienated, more hostile, potentially more violent. Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day, sometimes for months or even years at a time? That is not going to make us safer. That's not going to make us stronger. And if those individuals are ultimately released, how are they ever going to adapt? It's not smart. 此外，我已要求司法部长开始审查美国监狱中过度使用单独监禁的情况。社会科学研究表明，这种环境往往更容易让囚犯变得更疏离、更敌视、潜在更暴力。我们真的认为把这么多人单独关在狭小的牢房里每天23小时是合理的吗？有时一关就是几个月甚至几年。这不会让我们更安全。这不会让我们更强大。如果这些人最终被释放，他们怎么可能适应社会？这是不明智的。
Our prisons should be a place where we can train people for skills that can help them find a job, not train them to become more hardened criminals. 我们的监狱应该是一个培训人们就业技能的地方，而不是把他们训练成更顽固的罪犯的地方。
Look, I don't want to pretend like this is all easy. But some places are doing better than others. Montgomery County, Maryland put a job training center inside the prison walls -- to give folks a head start in thinking about what might you do otherwise than committing crime. That's a good idea. 听着，我不想假装这一切都很容易。但有些地方做得比其他地方好。马里兰州蒙哥马利县在监狱里建了一个职业培训中心——让犯人们提前思考除了犯罪之外还能做什么。这是个好主意。
Here's another good idea -- one with bipartisan support in Congress: Let's reward prisoners with reduced sentences if they complete programs that make them less likely to commit a repeat offense. Let's invest in innovative new approaches to link former prisoners with employers and help them stay on track. 还有一个好主意——一个得到国会两党支持的主意：让我们奖励那些完成了降低再犯风险项目的囚犯，为他们减刑。让我们投资于创新的新方法，帮助刑满释放人员与雇主建立联系，帮助他们重回正轨。
Let's follow the growing number of our states and cities and private companies who have decided to "Ban the Box" on job applications -- so that former prisoners who have done their time and are now trying to get straight with society have a decent shot in a job interview. And if folks have served their time, and they've reentered society, they should be able to vote. 让我们效仿越来越多的州、城市和私营企业，在求职申请中"取消犯罪记录勾选框"——这样那些已经服完刑、现在努力重新融入社会的前囚犯在面试中能有一个公平的机会。而且，如果人们已经服完刑，重新融入了社会，他们就应该享有投票权。
Communities that give our young people every shot at success; courts that are tough but fair; prisons that recognize eventually the majority will be released and so seek to prepare these returning citizens to grab that second chance -- that's where we need to build. 给我们的年轻人每一个成功机会的社区；严厉但公正的法庭；认识到大多数人最终都会被释放、因此努力帮助这些回归公民抓住第二次机会的监狱——这才是我们需要建设的方向。
But I want to add this. We can't ask our police, or our prosecutors, or our prison guards, or our judges to bear the entire burden of containing and controlling problems that the rest of us are not facing up to and willing to do something about. 但我还要补充一点。我们不能要求我们的警察、检察官、狱警或法官承担全部重担，去遏制和解决那些我们其他人不愿正视、不愿采取行动的问题。
So, yes, we have to stand up to those who are determined to slash investments in our communities at any cost -- cutting preschool programs, cutting job-training programs, cutting affordable housing programs, cutting community policing programs. That's shortsighted. Those investments make this country strong. We've got to invest in opportunity more than ever. 所以，是的，我们必须站起来反对那些不惜一切代价削减社区投资的人——削减学前教育项目，削减职业培训项目，削减经济适用房项目，削减社区警务项目。这是短视的。这些投资让这个国家强大。我们必须比以往任何时候都更投资于机会。
An African American man born roughly 25 years ago has just a one-in-two chance of being employed today. More than one in three African American children are growing up in poverty. When America's unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, when I first came into office, as it was going up, we properly recognized this is a crisis. Right now, the unemployment rate among African Americans is 9.5 percent. What should we call that? It is a crisis. And we have to be just as concerned about continuing to lift up job opportunities for these young people. 大约25年前出生的非裔美国男性，今天只有大约一半的几率能找到工作。超过三分之一的非裔美国儿童在贫困中长大。当我刚上任时，美国的失业率是9.5%，而且还在上升，我们正确地认识到这是一场危机。而现在，非裔美国人的失业率就是9.5%。我们该怎么称呼它？这是一场危机。我们必须同样关注继续为这些年轻人增加就业机会。
So today, I've been talking about the criminal justice system, but we have to recognize that it's not something we can view in isolation. Any system that allows us to turn a blind eye to hopelessness and despair, that's not a justice system, it is an injustice system. But that is an extension and a reflection of some broader decisions that we're making as a society. And that has to change. That has to change. 所以今天，我一直在谈论刑事司法系统，但我们必须认识到，我们不能孤立地看待它。任何允许我们对绝望和痛苦视而不见的制度，都不是一个正义的制度，而是一个不正义的制度。但这只是我们作为一个社会所做的一些更广泛的决定的延伸和反映。这必须改变。必须改变。
What the marchers on Washington knew, what the marchers in Selma knew, what folks like Julian Bond knew, what the marchers in this room still know, is that justice is not only the absence of oppression, it is the presence of opportunity. 华盛顿游行的参与者们知道，塞尔玛游行的参与者们知道，朱利安·邦德这样的人知道，在座的游行参与者们也知道，正义不仅是没有压迫，正义更是拥有机会。
Justice is giving every child a shot at a great education no matter what zip code they're born into. Justice is giving everyone willing to work hard the chance at a good job with good wages, no matter what their name is, what their skin color is, where they live. 正义是让每个孩子无论出生在哪个邮政编码区，都有机会接受良好的教育。正义是让每个愿意努力工作的人都有机会获得一份好工作和优厚的薪水，无论他们叫什么名字，无论他们的肤色如何，无论他们住在哪里。
Fifty years after the Voting Rights Act, justice is protecting that right for every American. Justice is living up to the common creed that says, I am my brother's keeper and my sister's keeper. 《选举权法案》通过50年后，正义就是保护每个美国人的这项权利。正义就是践行共同的信条：我是我兄弟的守护者，我是我姐妹的守护者。
Justice is making sure every young person knows they are special and they are important and that their lives matter -- not because they heard it in a hashtag, but because of the love they feel every single day -- not just love from their parents, not just love from their neighborhood, but love from police, love from politicians. Love from somebody who lives on the other side of the country, but says, that young person is still important to me. That's what justice is. 正义就是确保每个年轻人都知道他们是特别的、重要的，他们的生命很重要——不是因为他们在标签里听到的，而是因为他们每天感受到的爱——不仅来自父母的爱，不仅来自邻里的爱，还有来自警察的爱，来自政治家的爱。来自住在国家另一端的人的爱，他们会说，那个年轻人对我仍然很重要。这就是正义。
And in the American tradition and in the immigrant tradition of remaking ourselves, in the Christian tradition that says none of us is without sin and all of us need redemption, justice and redemption go hand in hand. 在美国自我重塑的传统中，在移民自我革新的传统中，在基督教"我们都有罪，都需要救赎"的传统中，正义与救赎是相辅相成的。
Right before I came out here, I met with four former prisoners, four ex-offenders. Two of them were African American, one of them was Latino, one of them was white. All of them had amazing stories. One of them dropped out of school when he was a young kid. Now he's making film about his experience in the prison system. 就在我来到这里之前，我会见了四名前囚犯，四名前罪犯。其中两人是非裔美国人，一人是拉丁裔，一人是白人。他们每个人都有令人惊叹的故事。其中一个在很小的时候就辍学了。现在他正在制作一部关于他在监狱系统中经历的电影。
One of them served 10 years in prison, then got a job at Five Guys -- which is a tasty burger -- and they gave him an opportunity, and he rose up and became a general manager there, and now is doing anti-violence work here in the community. 其中一个在监狱里待了10年，然后在"五人汉堡"找到了一份工作——那里的汉堡可好吃了——他们给了他一个机会，他一路晋升，成为了那里的总经理，现在正在社区里从事反暴力工作。
One of them, the young Latino man, he came out of prison and was given an opportunity to get trained on green jobs that are helping the environment but also gave him a marketable skill. And he talked about how the way he's staying out of trouble is he just keeps on thinking about his two daughters. And I could relate to that, because you don't want to disappoint your daughters. You don't want to disappoint those baby girls. And so he says, I go to work and I come home, and I grab that little baby and get a kiss, and that's keeping me focused. 其中一个，那个年轻的拉丁裔男子，他出狱后获得了参加绿色就业培训的机会，这些工作既有助于环境，也让他掌握了一门有用的技能。他说，他远离麻烦的方法就是一直想着他的两个女儿。我很能理解这种感受，因为你不想让你的女儿们失望。你不想让那些小宝贝们失望。所以他说，我去上班，然后回家，抱着我的小宝贝亲一口，这就是我坚持下去的动力。
And then one of them, Jeff Copeland, was arrested six times before his 38th birthday. He was drinking, using drugs, racked up DUI after DUI, sentence after sentence. And he admits that the sentences he was getting for DUI weren't reflective of all the trouble he was causing, could have been worse. And Jeff spent so much time jogging in place in his cell that inmates nicknamed him "The Running Man." And he was literally going nowhere, running in place. 还有一个人，杰夫·科普兰，在他38岁生日之前已经被捕了六次。他酗酒，吸毒，一次又一次的酒驾，一次又一次的判刑。他承认，他因酒驾被判的刑期并没有反映出他造成的所有麻烦，本来可能更严重。杰夫在牢房里原地跑了那么久，以至于狱友们给他起了个外号叫"奔跑的人"。他真的是在原地踏步，哪儿也去不了。
And then, somehow, Jeff started examining his life. And he said, "This isn't me." So he decided to hold himself accountable. He quit drinking. He went to AA. Met a recruiter from the re-entry program at the Community College of Philadelphia, enrolled in classes once he was released -- made sure to show up every day. Graduated summa cum laude -- with a 3.95 GPA. And this fall he'll graduate from Temple University with a major in criminal justice and a minor in social work. And he volunteers helping former inmates get their lives back on track. 然后，不知怎么的，杰夫开始审视自己的人生。他说："这不是真正的我。"于是他决定对自己负责。他戒了酒。他参加了戒酒互助会。他遇到了费城社区学院重返社会项目的一位招募人员，获释后他就报名上课——每天都坚持去。他以最高荣誉毕业——平均绩点3.95。今年秋天，他将从天普大学毕业，主修刑事司法，辅修社会工作。他还志愿帮助前囚犯重新走上生活正轨。
And "it's sort of a cliché," he says, "but we can do anything." And just two years ago, "The Running Man" ran his first marathon -- because he's going somewhere now. "You never look at crossing the finishing line," he says of his journey, "you attack it by putting one mile after the other. It takes steps." It takes steps. That's true for individuals. It's true for our nation. "这说起来有点老套，"他说，"但我们可以做任何事情。"就在两年前，"奔跑的人"跑完了他的第一个马拉松——因为他现在正在向前奔跑了。"你不要总想着冲过终点线，"他这样描述自己的旅程，"你要一步一个脚印地往前走。需要一步步来。"需要一步步来。对个人来说是这样。对我们的国家来说也是这样。
Sometimes I get in debates about how to think about progress or the lack of progress when it comes to issues of race and inequality in America. And there are times where people say, "Oh, the President, he's too optimistic." Or "he's not talking enough about how bad things are." 有时我会参与一些辩论，关于如何看待美国种族和不平等问题上的进展或缺乏进展。有些时候人们会说，"哦，总统太乐观了。"或者"他对问题的严重性谈得不够。"
Oh, let me tell you something, I see what happens. My heart breaks when I see families who are impacted. I spend time with those families and feel their grief. I see those young men on street corners and eventually in prisons, and I think to myself, they could be me; that the main difference between me and them is I had a more forgiving environment so that when I slipped up, when I made a mistake, I had a second chance. And they've got no margin for error. 哦，让我告诉你们，我看到了发生的一切。当我看到那些受到影响的家庭时，我的心都碎了。我和那些家庭相处，感受他们的悲痛。我看到那些街角的年轻人，最终进了监狱，我心里想，他们本可能是我；我和他们之间的主要区别是，我成长的环境更宽容，所以当我犯错时，我有第二次机会。而他们没有犯错的余地。
I know -- I know -- how hard things are for a lot of folks. But I also know that it takes steps. And if we have the courage to take that first step, then we take a second step. And if we have the courage to take the second step then suddenly we've taken 10 steps. The next thing you know, you've taken 100 steps. And that's true not just for us as individuals, but that is true for us as a nation. 我知道——我知道——对很多人来说，日子有多艰难。但我也知道，改变需要一步步来。如果我们有勇气迈出第一步，那么我们就会迈出第二步。如果我们有勇气迈出第二步，突然间我们就已经走了十步。不知不觉中，我们已经走了一百步。这不仅对我们个人来说是如此，对我们的国家来说也是如此。
We are not perfect, but we have the capacity to be more perfect. Mile after mile; step after step. And they pile up one after the other and pretty soon that finish line starts getting into sight, and we are not where we were. We're in a better place because we had the courage to move forward. So we cannot ignore the problems that we have, but we can't stop running the race. That's how you win the race. That's how you fix a broken system. That's how you change a country. 我们并不完美，但我们有能力变得更加完美。一英里又一英里；一步又一步。它们一个接一个地累积，很快终点线就开始进入视野，我们已不再是原来的样子。我们处在一个更好的地方，因为我们有勇气向前迈进。所以我们不能忽视我们的问题，但我们也不能停止奔跑。这就是赢得比赛的方法。这就是修复一个破碎系统的方法。这就是改变一个国家的方法。
The NAACP understands that. Think about the race that you have run. Think about the race ahead. If we keep taking steps toward a more perfect union, and close the gaps between who we are and who we want to be, America will move forward. There's nothing we can't do. NAACP明白这一点。想想你们已经跑过的路程。想想前方的路程。如果我们继续朝着更完美的联邦迈进，缩小我们现状与理想之间的差距，美国就会向前发展。没有什么是我们做不到的。
Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. 谢谢大家。上帝保佑你们。上帝保佑美利坚合众国。