Kenyan prisons

肯尼亚监狱

Learn the law, hope for freedom

学习法律，希望自由

Education gives Kenyan prisoners hope of redemption and release

教育给肯尼亚囚犯带来救赎和释放的希望

词汇

redemption/救赎

A SENIOR POLICEMAN in Kenya was recently sentenced to death for torturing and killing a prisoner who had been brought into a police station near Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, after drunkenly brawling with his wife. The policeman had thrashed him with a metal pipe, dunked his head in a drum of water and then, after the man had died, claimed he had been beaten by another prisoner, who was initially charged with the murder. Bribes were offered to prisoners to incriminate their fellow inmate. But the judge rejected the story and sentenced the cop to death.

近日，肯尼亚一名高级警官因虐待并杀害一名囚犯而被判处死刑。这名囚犯在与妻子醉酒斗殴后被带到肯尼亚首都内罗毕附近的一个警察局。警察用一根金属管殴打他，把他的头浸在一桶水里，然后，在他死后，声称他被另一名囚犯殴打，这名囚犯最初被控谋杀。向囚犯行贿以使他们的狱友有罪。但法官驳回了这一说法，判处这名警察死刑。

词汇

Thrash/打；使逆行

Incriminate/控告；暗示...有罪

Bribe/贿赂

Inmate/同院病人；同狱犯人

The police usually enjoy impunity, especially when they kill suspected criminals, which they often do after nabbing them. More striking in this case was that, a mere four days after he was sentenced, the errant policeman was sitting in the front row of a class of 15 prisoners in Kamiti maximum-security jail outside Nairobi. Clad in the blue and white pyjamas worn by convicts, he had started a course in law under the auspices of London University.

警察通常可以逍遥法外，特别是当他们杀死嫌疑犯时，他们通常在逮捕他们之后这样做。在这起案件中，更令人震惊的是，就在他被判刑仅仅四天之后，这名误入歧途的警察坐在内罗毕郊外卡米提最高安全级别监狱的15名囚犯的前排。他穿着犯人穿的蓝白相间的睡衣，在伦敦大学的赞助下开始了一门法律课程。

词汇

Impunity/不受惩罚

Nab/捉住；逮捕

Errant/不定的；周游的；偏离正路的

Pyjamas/睡衣；宽长裤

Auspice/赞助；主办

Through the African Prisons Project (APP), a British-backed NGO, about 65 Kenyan prisoners, almost all of them lifers or on death row, are taking classes in law, their papers sent back and forth between London and Nairobi. The scheme was started by a British lawyer, Alexander McLean, in neighbouring Uganda 12 years ago. In Kamiti prisoners and warders often attend class together, sometimes helping each other with homework or jointly solving legal conundrums. “We’ve had so many success stories,” says George Dianga, the officer in charge of Kamiti. “APP has greatly improved the inmates’ capacity to make appeals. Now judges really do listen.”

通过英国支持的非政府组织“非洲监狱项目”(APP)，大约65名肯尼亚囚犯正在上法律课，他们的文件在伦敦和内罗毕之间来回传送，这些囚犯几乎都是终身监禁或死囚。12年前，英国律师亚历山大·麦克林(Alexander McLean)在邻国乌干达发起了这项计划。在卡米提，囚犯和狱吏经常一起上课，有时互相帮助做作业或共同解决法律难题。“我们有很多成功的故事，”负责Kamiti的官员乔治•迪亚加(George Dianga)表示。“该项目(APP)极大地提高了囚犯上诉的能力。现在法官们真的会倾听。”

词汇

Warder/ 看守；守卫；典狱官

Conundrum/难题；谜语

The APP has helped change the law itself. One of its star students, Wilson Kinyua, who was set free in February after 19 years behind bars, had argued before the Supreme Court that the death penalty violated the constitution, which forbids cruel or inhuman punishment. In fact, no death sentence has been carried out in Kenya since 1987. Thousands have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment under presidential decrees. But the death penalty is still on the statute book. Thanks, however, to the constitutional challenge lodged by Mr Kinyua and his friends, the Supreme Court now accepts that death sentences should no longer be mandatory for murder (the recent case of the policeman was considered exceptionally heinous).

这款项目帮助改变了法律本身。该校的一名明星学生威尔逊·金元(Wilson Kinyua)曾在最高法院辩称，死刑违反了禁止残酷或不人道惩罚的宪法。金元于今年2月被释放，此前他已被监禁19年。事实上，自1987年以来，肯尼亚从未执行过死刑。根据总统颁布的法令，数千人被减刑为无期徒刑。但是死刑仍然在法典上。然而，由于金元先生和他的朋友们提出的宪法挑战，最高法院现在承认，谋杀不应该再强制执行死刑(最近的该警察案件被认为是极其令人发指的)。

词汇

Mandatory/强制的；托管的；命令的

 

The law in Kenya is still heavily tilted against the poor, who are afforded no legal aid in their defence, except for capital crimes, unless a lawyer can be found who acts pro bono. Travesties of justice are frequent. Until the recent Supreme Court ruling, judges had little leeway for leniency, since various crimes carried mandatory sentences. Robbery with violence, for instance, used to carry a mandatory death sentence, albeit often commuted to life. But life usually meant life.

肯尼亚的法律仍然严重偏向穷人，穷人除了死罪之外，没有得到任何法律援助，除非能找到一名从事公益活动的律师。正义的闹剧时有发生。直到最近最高法院的裁决之前，法官们几乎没有宽大处理的余地，因为各种罪行都是强制执行的。以暴力抢劫为例，虽然常常被减刑为无期徒刑，但在过去，暴力抢劫往往被判处死刑。但无期徒刑通常意味着保住一条性命。

词汇

pro bono/公益活动

Leeway/余地；风压差；偏航；落后

Leniency/宽大，仁慈；温和

 

Most of the women prisoners serving life or facing a death sentence in the maximum-security jail in Langata, on the other side of Nairobi, murdered their husbands or partners. Claims that they suffered violent domestic abuse carried little extenuating weight when judges sentenced them.

在内罗毕另一边的兰加塔安全级别最高的监狱中，大多数正在服刑或面临死刑的女囚犯的罪因是杀害了她们的丈夫或伴侣。当法官判决他们时，声称他们遭受了暴力的家庭虐待的辩护几乎没有什么可减轻（罪行）的成分。

词汇

Extenuating/情有可原的；使减轻的

So a vital facet of the APP has been to teach prisoners how to launch appeals and to argue for them in court. The prisoners pursuing London University courses stress that their aim is to help fellow inmates who were unable, for lack of education or money, to defend themselves effectively.

因此，该项目的一个重要方面是教会囚犯如何发起上诉，并在法庭上为他们辩护。参加伦敦大学(London University)课程的囚犯强调，他们的目标是帮助那些因缺乏教育或资金而无法有效自卫的狱友。

 

While the APP is sensitive to the charge of paternalistic interference in Kenya’s judicial system, the Kenyan government and especially its prison service have been happy to co-operate with it. The organisation has sought to improve both prison conditions and the justice system. One effect has been to enhance relations between prisoners and guards. Another has been to reduce reoffending: according to the APP, none of its graduates, once freed, has slipped up.

虽然该项目序对肯尼亚司法系统受到的家长式干涉的指控很敏感，但肯尼亚政府，尤其是其监狱服务部门，一直乐于与它合作。该组织寻求改善监狱条件和司法系统。其中一个效果是加强了囚犯和狱警之间的关系。另一项措施是减少重复犯罪:根据该套教养流程，囚犯一旦被释放，没有一名“毕业生”会犯错。

词汇

Paternalistic/家长式作风的

 

Above all, it has given prisoners hope. “APP has inspired us,” says William, a death-row prisoner who, after ten years inside, has both a poetic and lawyerly turn of phrase. “It has turned people from being unreasonable into being reasonable. Inasmuch as our bodies are in prison, our minds are free.”

最重要的是，它给了囚犯希望。“APP启发了我们，”死囚威廉(William)说。“它让人们从不讲道理变成了讲道理。因为我们的身体是在监狱里，但思想是自由的。”

词汇

Inasmuch/就......而言；由于......