考研英语时文赏读（96）:监狱为何会成为日本老年人心中的天堂？

　　Why some Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

　　为什么一些日本老年人想去蹲监狱

　　At a halfway house in Hiroshima——for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community——69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.

　　在广岛的一个教习所（从监狱刑满释放的罪犯回归社会前要去的一个地方）里，69岁的高田敏夫告诉我，他之所以违法是因为他太穷了。他只是想找个免费住的地方，即便是在监狱也无所谓。

　　“I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me——perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail,” he says. “So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: ’Look, I took this.’”

　　他说：“我到了领取养老金的年纪，但我把钱都花光了。所以我突然想到，如果我住到监狱里去，就可以免费生活了。所以我骑了一辆自行车来到警察局，告诉警察说：‘看，这是我偷的。’”

　　The plan worked. This was Toshio’s first offence, committed when he was 62, but Japanese courts treat petty theft seriously, so it was enough to get him a one-year sentence.

　　这个办法果然奏效。这是高田敏夫第一次犯罪，当时他62岁。日本的法律很严厉，对小偷小盗也严惩不贷，因此偷自行车让他被判处了一年有期徒刑。

　　Small, slender, and with a tendency to giggle, Toshio looks nothing like a habitual criminal, much less someone who’d threaten women with knives. But after he was released from his first sentence, that’s exactly what he did.

　　高田敏夫身材瘦小、爱笑，看起来一点也不像一名惯犯，更不像是会拿刀威胁女人的人。但没想到的是在他刑满释放后，他真就这么做了。

　　I went to a park and just threatened them. I wasn’t intending to do any harm. I just showed the knife to them hoping one of them would call the police. One did. Altogether, Toshio has spent half of the last eight years in jail.

　　我只是去公园吓吓他们，我没想过要伤害任何人，我只是把刀拿出来给她们看，然后希望他们中的一个能够马上报警。真有一个人报警了。总之，在过去8年的时间里，高田敏夫有一半的时间是在监狱里度过的。

　　I ask him if he likes being in prison, and he points out an additional financial upside——his pension continues to be paid even while he’s inside.

　　我问他是否喜欢蹲监狱，他说蹲监狱在经济上对自己有好处，因为即使在监狱里，他的养老金仍会正常发放。

　　“It’s not that I like it but I can stay there for free,” he says. "And when I get out I have saved some money. So it is not that painful."

　　他说：“并不是我喜欢蹲监狱，而是我可以免费住在这里，当我出狱的时候，我已经存下了一笔钱，所以就不会因贫穷而那么痛苦了。”

　　Toshio represents a striking trend in Japanese crime. In a remarkably law-abiding society, a rapidly growing proportion of crimes is carried about by over-65s. In 1997 this age group accounted for about one in 20 convictions but 20 years later the figure had grown to more than one in five.

　　高田敏夫代表了日本犯罪的一种显著趋势。在日本这个遵纪守法的社会里，65岁以上老人的犯罪率直线上升。1997年，大约只有5％的罪犯为65岁以上的老人，但在20年后的今天，这一比率已经达到了20％。

　　(全文共328个词，BBC)

　　重难点词汇：

　　criminal  adj. 犯罪的；刑事的；罪过的，错误的；不道德的；令人震惊的 n. 罪犯

　　offence  n. 犯罪；违反；过错；攻击

　　petty  adj. 琐碎的；小气的；小规模的

　　conviction  n. 定罪；确信；证明有罪；确信，坚定的信仰

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