预防青少年犯罪项目

    This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
    这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。

    A program in the eastern United States invites young people into a prison to try to scare them away from prison. The goal is to teach them to avoid bad choices and bad influences that could put them behind bars for life.
    美国东部的一个项目邀请青少年参观监狱,以教育他们远离犯罪。该项目旨在教导青少年避免一些可能会导致他们锒铛入狱的错误选择和不良影响。
    注1:behind bars:入狱,坐牢

    Students can take a tour of the prison, in school groups or by themselves. At the end, the young people sit down for a discussion with some of the inmates.
    学生们可以以学校团体形式或个人形式参观监狱。参观结束时,这些青少年将坐下来和一些犯人进行交流。

    The program is called Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy, or PATT. It takes place at the Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown, a medium-security prison for men. Sal Mauriello is a case specialist there.
    该项目被称为犯人防止青少年犯罪项目(PATT项目)。该项目在马里兰州一个男性普通犯监狱--黑格斯敦惩教所进行。萨尔·马里奥(Sal Mauriello)是该监狱的案例专家。

    SAL MAURIELLO: "We have a group of eleven inmates who are in the PATT program. They tell the youth what they went through as a child, what their crimes consist of. They try to teach them about peer pressure. They try to teach them about bad choices."
    马里奥:“PATT项目中有一个由11名犯人组成的小组,他们给青少年讲他们年少时的经历,以及他们犯了什么罪行。他们试图教给青少年什么是同侪压力,什么是错误选择。”

    The Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy program also includes an essay-writing contest.
    PATT项目还包括一项作文竞赛。

    Tomi Dare is a seventeen-year-old student at Hagerstown Community College. She saw an announcement for the contest on her college website. To enter, students had to write about peer pressure and why they do not do drugs. The prize: five hundred dollars for school.
    托米·德尔(Tomi Dare)是黑格斯敦社区学院一名17岁的学生。她在学院的网站上看到了作文竞赛的告示。要参加这项竞赛,学生们必须写一篇有关同侪压力和为什么不吸毒的作文。竞赛奖品是500美元奖学金。

    In her essay, Ms. Dare wrote about her own experience growing up as an African-American girl interested in sports.
    在她的作文中,德尔写了作为一个对体育感兴趣的非裔美国姑娘的成长历程。

    TOMI DARE: "Drugs and alcohol not only slow a person down, it doesn't make you feel like you are a winner. It doesn't make you feel like you are the best. As an athlete, I'm 6-2 [188 centimeters], so I feel that I should be above peer pressure because I'm bigger than everybody that I'm around.
    Dare:“吸毒和酗酒不仅让人反应迟钝,也无法让你觉得你是个优胜者。作为运动员,我身高1米88,我认为我应该超乎同侪压力之外,因为我比我身边的人都高。

    "So I was talking about that and I was talking about how I consider myself a queen. And if I'm royalty, I need to not put substances in my body. Drugs and alcohol are not what a queen should be taking."
    “因此我谈到了如何将自己视为女王。而作为女王,我必须远离那些东西,吸毒和酗酒不是一个女王该做的事情。”

    The scholarship is presented by the Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy program.
    奖学金由PATT项目颁发。

    Prison spokesman Mark Vernarelli says most teens who visit come to understand what even one bad decision can mean.
    监狱发言人马克·韦尔纳瑞里(Mark Vernarelli)称,大多数来访的青少年都开始明白,一个错误的决定意味着什么。

    MARK VERNARELLI: "A lot of men and women serving life in prison in the state of Maryland didn't pull a trigger or plunge a knife into anybody. They were accessories to a crime. They drove the getaway car. They were with the perpetrator who did the main part of the crime. And yet they got the life sentence as well. "
    韦尔纳瑞:“在马里兰州监狱服刑的很多人都没有犯开枪或持刀刺伤别人的罪行。他们是从犯,他们在犯罪时负责开车逃跑,他们和主犯一起。然而他们一样被判刑。”

    Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy began in nineteen eighty-eight. PATT is one of Maryland's oldest programs to keep young people from a life of crime. But there are also others.
    PATT项目始于1988年,是马里兰州历史最久的防止青少年犯罪项目之一,还有一些其他类似项目。

    MARK VERNARELLI: "We found that girls really need special sit-down sessions sometimes more than the boys do, so we have a program for girls only. We have a program that travels across the state, which talks about the dangers of gang affiliation.
    韦尔纳瑞:“我们发现,有时女孩子确实比男孩子更需要这种特殊座谈会。所以我们有一个覆盖全国,专门针对女孩子,讨论拉帮结派危险性的的项目,

    "We have an excellent program where the inmates actually lead a tour and they have the children eat the meal in the prison cafeteria with the inmates."
    “我们有这么一个非常出色的项目,由犯人带领孩子们参观监狱,然后让孩子们在监狱食堂和犯人们一起进餐。”

    Mark Vernarelli says the Prisoners Against Teen Tragedy also gain from the program. It offers them a chance to help repay society for their crimes, and keep others from following in their footsteps.
    韦尔纳瑞称,PATT项目也从项目自身获益,该项目给犯人们一个回报社会的机会,也避免了其他人重蹈覆辙。