为何支持改革派检察官
美国人极其需要一场更深入思考的讨论，来应对犯罪问题。人们已经受够了主导这场辩论的蛊惑人心和分裂性党派攻击，它们掩盖了问题的实质。
Americans desperately need a more thoughtful discussion about our response to crime. People have had enough of the demagoguery and divisive partisan attacks that dominate the debate and obscure the issues.
和大多数人一样，我也对犯罪感到担忧。政府最重要的职责之一就是确保公共安全。在我从事慈善事业的 30 多年里，我一直参与刑事司法体系改革的努力。
Like most of us, I’m concerned about crime. One of government’s most important roles is to ensure public safety. I have been involved in efforts to reform the criminal-justice system for the more than 30 years I have been a philanthropist.
然而，我们的制度充斥着不公，这让所有人都更不安全。所谓必须在公正与安全之间做选择，这种想法本身就是错误的。两者相辅相成：如果人们信任司法体系，它就能发挥作用；而如果体系运转有效，公共安全也会随之改善。
Yet our system is rife with injustices that make us all less safe. The idea that we need to choose between justice and safety is false. They reinforce each other: If people trust the justice system, it will work. And if the system works, public safety will improve.
我们需要承认，美国黑人入狱的可能性是白人的五倍。这是一种不公，正在侵蚀我们的民主。
We need to acknowledge that black people in the U.S. are five times as likely to be sent to jail as white people. That is an injustice that undermines our democracy.
我们每年花费 810 亿美元，把大约 200 万人关进监狱。我们需要投入更多资金，采用行之有效的预防犯罪策略——在危机情形中派遣心理健康专业人员，投资青年就业项目，并为在押人员创造教育机会。这会降低这些囚犯获释后再犯新罪的可能性。
We spend $81 billion every year keeping around two million people in prisons and jails. We need to invest more in preventing crime with strategies that work—deploying mental-health professionals in crisis situations, investing in youth job programs, and creating opportunities for education behind bars. This reduces the likelihood that those prisoners will commit new crimes after release.
近年来，全国各地有志于改革的检察官及其他执法官员正在逐渐凝聚成一项议程，该议程承诺将更具效力且更为公正。这项议程包括优先将刑事司法系统的资源用于保护民众免受暴力犯罪侵害，敦促我们将药物成瘾视为疾病而非犯罪，并致力于终结将贫困与精神疾病刑事化的现象。
In recent years, reform-minded prosecutors and other law-enforcement officials around the country have been coalescing around an agenda that promises to be more effective and just. This agenda includes prioritizing the resources of the criminal-justice system to protect people against violent crime. It urges that we treat drug addiction as a disease, not a crime. And it seeks to end the criminalization of poverty and mental illness.
这一议程既追求安全，也追求正义，其基础是常识与证据。它深得人心，也行之有效。目标不是削减警察经费，而是重建警察与被执法者之间的信任——这种伙伴关系有助于侦破犯罪。
This agenda, aiming at both safety and justice, is based on both common sense and evidence. It’s popular. It’s effective. The goal is not defunding the police but restoring trust between the police and the policed, a partnership that fosters the solving of crimes.
一些政客和评论人士试图将近期犯罪率的飙升归咎于主张司法改革的检察官的政策。但我所看到的研究结果并非如此。最严谨的学术研究分析了 35 个辖区数据后发现，主张司法改革的检察官当选与当地犯罪率之间没有关联。事实上，近年来暴力犯罪在未设有改革派检察官的辖区增速普遍更快。在部分由强硬派政客领导的共和党州，谋杀率上涨最为迅猛。
Some politicians and pundits have tried to blame recent spikes in crime on the policies of reform-minded prosecutors. The research I’ve seen says otherwise. The most rigorous academic study, analyzing data across 35 jurisdictions, shows no connection between the election of reform-minded prosecutors and local crime rates. In fact, violent crime in recent years has generally been increasing more quickly in jurisdictions without reform-minded prosecutors. Murder rates have been rising fastest in some Republican states led by tough-on-crime politicians.
研究近期犯罪率上升原因的严肃学者指出了其他因素：新冠疫情封锁期间，与世隔绝导致年轻人中精神疾病令人不安地增多；刑事司法改革抗议活动后，警方执法力度有所退缩；以及枪支贩运增加。许多主张更严厉刑事司法政策的人，同时也在支持更宽松的枪支法律。
Serious scholars researching causes behind the recent increase in crime have pointed to other factors: a disturbing rise in mental illness among young people due to the isolation imposed by Covid lockdowns, a pullback in policing in the wake of public criminal-justice reform protests, and increases in gun trafficking. Many of the same people who call for more-punitive criminal-justice policies also support looser gun laws.
这就是为什么我一直支持选举（以及最近连任）那些支持改革的检察官。我这样做公开透明，而且没有收手的打算。我提供的资金，让那些持有合理改革理念的候选人有机会被公众听到。从结果来看，公众显然喜欢他们听到的内容。
This is why I have supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform. I have done it transparently, and I have no intention of stopping. The funds I provide enable sensible reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public. Judging by the results, the public likes what it’s hearing.
乔治·索罗斯是索罗斯基金管理公司和开放社会基金会的创始人。
Mr. Soros is founder of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Foundations.