“牢有所养”？

“牢有所养”？

退休惯犯正造成日本监狱系统面临预算危机，学者称，这些满头银发的坏蛋迫切希望坐牢：只需偷窃一份200日元的三明治，就可以“减少生活成本”，在牢中换取两年的有期徒刑，同时给国家带来840万日元的成本。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

budgetary crisis 预算危机

shoplift 入店行窃['ʃɑplɪft]

convict 宣告…有罪[kən'vɪkt]

recidivism 再犯，累犯[rɪ'sɪdɪvɪzəm]

geriatric 老人的；老年医学的[,dʒerɪ'ætrɪk]

ratio 比率，比例['reɪʃɪəʊ]

vicious 恶毒的；恶意的['vɪʃəs]

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Japan’s elderly turn to life of crime to ease cost of living （475words）

By Leo Lewis in Tokyo

* * *

Japan’s prison system is being driven to budgetary crisis by demographics, a welfare shortfall and a new, pernicious breed of villain: the recidivist retiree. And the silver-haired crooks, say academics, are desperate to be behind bars.

Crime figures show that about 35 per cent of shoplifting offences are committed by people over 60. Within that age bracket, 40 per cent of repeat offenders have committed the same crime more than six times.

There is good reason, concludes a report, to suspect that the shoplifting crime wave in particular represents an attempt by those convicted to end up in prison — an institution that offers free food, accommodation and healthcare.

The mathematics of recidivism are gloomily compelling for the would-be convict. Even with a frugal diet and dirt-cheap accommodation, a single Japanese retiree with minimal savings has living costs more than 25 per cent higher than the meagre basic state pension of Y780,000 ($6,900) a year, according to a study on the economics of elderly crime by Michael Newman of Tokyo-based research house Custom Products Research.

Even the theft of a Y200 sandwich can earn a two-year prison sentence, say academics, at an Y8.4m cost to the state.

The geriatric crime wave is accelerating, and analysts note that the Japanese prison system — newly expanded and at about 70 per cent occupancy — is being prepared for decades of increases. Between 1991 and 2013, the latest year for which the Ministry of Justice publishes figures, the number of elderly inmates in jail for repeating the same offence six times has climbed 460 per cent.

The surging rates of crime among the elderly disguise a darker trend than mere contempt for the law, say economists and criminologists. Retiree crime is rising more quickly than the general demographic ascent into old age that will put 40 per cent of the Japanese population over 65 by the year 2060.

Akio Doteuchi, a senior researcher on social development at the NLI Research Institute in Tokyo, expects the ratio of repeat offenders to continue rising.

“The social situation in Japan has forced the elderly into the need to commit crime,” he says. “The ratio of people who receive public assistance is highest since the end of the war. About 40 per cent of the elderly live alone. It’s a vicious circle. They leave prison, they don’t have money or family so they turn immediately to crime.”

The crime figures, he adds, expose the strained calculus of the government’s welfare spending as the world’s second-biggest economy ages. Prison, no matter how the spreadsheets are run, is a woefully inefficient way for the government to target welfare spending at those who most need it.

Attempts to find ways to release elderly prisoners early have encountered insurmountable legal problems, Mr Doteuchi says, and the prison system as a whole will eventually be overrun by elderly inmates.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. Which one is not mentioned as a reason to cause budgetary crisis for Japan’s prison system?

a. demographics

b. a welfare shortfall

c. changes in the law

d. the recidivist retiree

2. What facility the prison does not offer?

a. offers free food

b. accommodation

c. healthcare

d. medical insurance

3. How many years should the people be in prison, if they steal a Y200 sandwich?

a. 1

b. 2

c. 8

d. 0.5

4. What's the percent of the Japanese population over 65 by the year 2060?

a. 40%

b. 65%

c. 70%

d. 40%

[1] 答案c. changes in the law

解释：日本的监狱系统正因人口结构、福利缺口以及退休惯犯而陷入预算危机。

[2] 答案d. medical insurance

解释：监狱提供免费食物、住宿以及医疗服务，但没有提到医疗保险。

[3] 答案b. 2

解释：学者们表示，即使是偷窃一份200日元的三明治，就可以换取两年的有期徒刑，给国家带来840万日元的成本。

[4] 答案a. 40%

解释：经济学家和犯罪学家称，老年人犯罪率上升掩饰了一个比单纯蔑视法律更加阴暗的趋势。退休人员犯罪的上升速度超过人口老龄化趋势——到2060年40%的日本人年龄将在65岁以上。