每日英語跟讀 Ep.K154:  Spain Turns to Corruption Rehab for Officials Who Can’t Stop Stealing

Carlos Alburquerque isn’t your typical rehab candidate. He’s a 75-year-old grandfather living in Córdoba, a city in southern Spain. He was a town notary before he retired in 2015. He hasn’t touched drugs or alcohol in years.

卡洛斯‧阿布奎基不是常人眼中該進勒戒所的人。他住在西班牙南部哥多華市，是個75歲的祖父。2015年退休前他是市鎮公證人。他已多年沒碰毒品和酒。

But his isn’t your typical rehab program: It’s an 11-month boot camp to reform corrupt Spanish officials and “reinsert” them into mainstream society.

但他接受的並非一般勒戒計畫，而是為期11個月的訓練營，目的是改造西班牙的貪官汙吏，並將他們「重新注入」主流社會。

“Repairing the damage is what is left for me in this life,” said Alburquerque, who is serving a four-year prison sentence for stealing around 400,000 euros (nearly $500,000) in his work drawing up contracts and deeds.

阿布奎基說：「這一生只求彌補過錯。」他在草擬合約和地契時私吞約40萬歐元（近50萬美元），被判入獄4年。

Over the course of 32 sessions in an austere conference room in Córdoba’s penitentiary, Alburquerque will be monitored by a team of psychiatrists. He will sit for group therapy sessions with titles like “personal abilities” and “values.” He is, in some ways, the guinea pig of an experiment meant to answer an age-old question: Buried deep in the soul of a swindler like Alburquerque, might there be an honest man?

在哥多華監獄一間簡樸的會議室內進行32次療程期間，阿布奎基將受到一組精神科醫生監控。他將參加「個人能力」和「價值」等團體治療課程。某種程度上，他是一個實驗的白老鼠，實驗旨在回答一個老問題：像阿布奎基這種騙子的心靈深處，會有個誠實的自我嗎？

That such a program exists in Spain may say much about the country’s belief in second chances as it does about how corruption has captured the public imagination here. Flip open a newspaper or turn on the radio: You will hear of schemes, scandals and skulduggery.

西班牙有此計畫，說明該國相信第二次機會，以及貪腐問題受公眾注視。翻開報紙或打開收音機，你會聽到陰謀、醜聞與詐欺。

Ángel Luis Ortiz, a former judge who now runs Spain’s prisons, said the boom-bust cycles of Spain’s economy had led it to a long history of fraudsters and betrayals of public trust.

曾任法官、現在主管西班牙監獄的安赫爾‧路易斯‧歐提茲說，西班牙經濟的盛衰循環，造就了詐欺和背叛公眾信任的悠久歷史。

But at least, corruption rates in Spain were no worse than in other European nations, Ortiz said, just 5% of all crimes.It was Spain’s will to rehabilitate the offenders that set it apart from the rest, Ortiz said.

歐提茲表示，西班牙貪瀆率並不比其他歐洲國家高，僅占所有刑事案件的5%。西班牙想讓罪犯自新，才是它有別於他國之處。

Nine prisons are running programs so far, which began in March. Prisoners don’t get reduced sentences for joining, but officials say participating is looked on favorably when it comes time to request parole.

目前已有9所監獄實施這項從3月開始的計畫。囚犯不會因為加入而獲減刑，但參加者申請假釋時會加分。

Yet for all the volunteers, Ortiz still thinks his biggest challenge may be convincing Spain’s corrupt officials that there actually might be something wrong with them.

雖有不少人自願參加，歐提茲仍認為，最大挑戰可能在於讓西班牙的貪腐官員相信，他們可能真的有問題。

For that, the government turned to Sergio Ruiz, a prison psychiatrist who helped design the program. Ruiz said that in addition to getting participants to recognize their flaws in group therapy, inmates would eventually be asked to participate in “restorative justice” sessions where they would ask for forgiveness from their victims. 

政府為此求助於監獄精神科醫生塞吉奧‧魯伊茲，他幫忙設計了這個計畫。他表示除了讓參加者在團體治療中認識到自身缺陷外，最終還會要求他們參加「修復式正義」的課程，請求受害者饒恕。Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/5495283