The heavy, metal door slammed behind me,

私は宗教色のない白人の 中流家庭で育ちました

and I heard the key turn in the lock.

1950年代のアメリカでした

The cement floor underneath me had a sticky film on it

つまり独立記念日に花火を見て

that made a ripping sound,

ハロウィーンは お菓子目当てに歩き回り

like tape being pulled off a box,

クリスマスにはツリーの下に プレゼントを置きました

every time I moved my foot.

ただ そんな伝統行事を 私が経験するようになる頃には

The only connection to the outside world was a small window placed too high to see.

どれも上っ面だけの 商業的なイベントとなっていて

There was a small, square table bolted to the floor

その後には ただ空しさだけが残りました

and two metal chairs,

ですから比較的若いころから

one on either side.

実存の空しさを埋めて 自分自身より大きな何かと

That was the first time I understood viscerally --

つながることを求めていたのです

just for a fleeting moment --

我家では ユダヤ式13才の成人式を 100年以上もしていなかったので

what incarceration might feel like.

やってみようかと思いましたー

And I promised myself all those years ago as a young, public defender

（笑）

that I would never, ever forget that feeling.

でも がっかりしました １度ラビ（ユダヤ教の師）にお会いした時

And I never have.

実に長身で白髪をなびかせた 神様然とした方でしたが

It inspired me to fight for each and every one of my clients' freedom

書類に書き込むために 私のミドルネームを

as if it was my own.

お尋ねになっただけでした

Freedom.

そう それだけでした

A concept so fundamental to the American psyche

（笑）

that it is enshrined in our constitution.

ですから万年筆はもらえましたが

And yet, America is addicted to imprisonment.

私が求めていた 帰属意識と自信は得られませんでした

From slavery through mass incarceration,

だいぶ後になって

it always has been.

私の息子が何の通過儀礼もなく 13才になると思うと

Look, we all know the shocking numbers.

たまらなくなりました

The United States incarcerates more people per capita

そこで13才の誕生記念旅行という アイディアを思いつき

than almost any nation on the planet.

息子のマーフィーに 意義を感じるなら世界中どこでも

But what you may not know is that on any given night in America,

連れていくと言いました

almost half a million people go to sleep in those concrete jail cells

亀を愛する 若きナチュラリストは

who have not been convicted of anything.

即座にガラパゴス諸島と決めました

These mothers and fathers and sons and daughters

そして娘のケイティが13才になって

are there for one reason and one reason only:

私と一緒にグランドキャニオンの 谷底で２週間過ごした時

they cannot afford to pay the price of their freedom.

彼女は初めて自分に パワーと勇気があると気づきました

And that price is called bail.

それ以来 伴侶のアシュトンや 友人 親戚の多くが

Now, bail was actually created as a form of conditional release.

自分の子供たちを 13才の旅に連れていき

The theory was simple:

旅が親にも子にも変化をもたらすことに 皆 気づきました

set bail at an amount that somebody could afford to pay --

私には祈る習慣がついていません

they would pay it --

でもこの20年間

it would give them an incentive to come back to court;

食前には家族みんなで手を繋ぎます

it would give them some skin in the game.

それはともに過ごす 美しい静寂の時であり

Bail was never intended to be used as punishment.

皆を結びつける瞬間です

Bail was never intended to hold people in jail cells.

アシュトンは皆に 「手を握って」と言いますが

And bail was never, ever intended to create a two-tier system of justice:

宗教的な意味はないと 安心させます

one for the rich and one for everybody else.

（笑）

But that is precisely what it has done.

最近 家族から

75 percent of people in American local jails

私が生涯かけて収集した 250箱以上の品を

are there because they cannot pay bail.

何とかできないかと頼まれ

People like Ramel.

儀礼を行うという 私の本能が働きました

On a chilly October afternoon,

単なる「死の片付け」より 一歩先に行こうと思い始めました

Ramel was riding his bicycle in his South Bronx neighborhood

「死の片付け」は元々スウェーデン語で 死ぬ前に自分の押し入れや

on his way to a market to pick up a quart of milk.

地下室そして屋根裏部屋を 片づけることです

He was stopped by the police.

自分の子供たちが 後でやらなくていいようにです

And when he demanded to know why he was being stopped,

（笑）

an argument ensued, and the next thing he knew,

私の子供たちが 次から次と箱を開けて

he was on the ground in handcuffs,

なぜこんな物を取っておいたのかと いぶかっている様が浮かびました

being charged with "riding your bicycle on the sidewalk

（笑）

and resisting arrest."

それから彼らが １枚の写真に

He was taken to court,

私が若い美女と映っているのを見て

where a judge set 500 dollars bail.

「父さんといるこの人は一体誰？」 と訊くのを私は想像しました

But Ramel -- he didn't have 500 dollars.

（笑）

So this 32-year-old father was sent to "The Boat" --

その時 「ははあん」と 納得がいきました

a floating jail barge that sits on the East River

大事なのは取っておいたものでなく

between a sewage plant and a fish market.

それにまつわって意味をもたらす 物語の方だと

That's right, you heard me.

物語を語るために そういう物を使うことで

In New York City, in 2018,

新しい儀礼を 生み出せるでしょうか

we have a floating prison barge that sits out there

13才になった時ではなく 長く人生を歩んできた人のための

and houses primarily black and brown men

通過儀礼にできるでしょうか

who cannot pay their bail.

それで私は実験し始めました

Let's talk for a moment

数ダースの物を箱から出し

about what it means to be in jail even for a few days.

部屋中に並べ

Well, it can mean losing your job,

そして人々を中に招き入れ

losing your home,

関心を持った物について 尋ねてもらったのです

jeopardizing your immigration status.

結果は素晴らしかった

It may even mean losing custody of your children.

良い物語が呼び水となって さらに深い討論となり

A third of sexual victimization by jail staff

客たちは その中に 自分の人生との

happens in the first three days in jail,

重要な接点を見出しました

and almost half of all jail deaths, including suicides,

デリアスは 私が80年代によく着ていた―

happen in that first week.

政治犯レオナルド・ペルティエの 釈放を求めるTシャツについて尋ねました

What's more, if you're held in jail on bail,

悲しいことに彼は今も収監中です

you're four times more likely to get a jail sentence

会話の展開は早く

than if you had been free,

アメリカの刑務所に収監中の 数多くの政治犯の話から

and that jail sentence will be three times longer.

デリアスが 60年代の黒人解放運動が

And if you are black or Latino and cash bail has been set,

遺したものについて考えていること また30余年後でなく

you are two times more likely to remain stuck in that jail cell

当時 成人していたら 彼の人生はどう違っていただろうかという

than if you were white.

話にまで及びました

Jail in America is a terrifying, dehumanizing and violent experience.

会話の終わりにデリアスは私に

Now imagine for just one moment that it's you stuck in that jail cell,

そのTシャツをくれないかと尋ねました

and you don't have the 500 dollars to get out.

それを彼にあげた時に とても満たされた気持ちになりました

And someone comes along and offers you a way out.

こうした会話によって 特に世代を超えた人びとが

"Just plead guilty," they say.

共通の場に立てたので

"You can go home back to your job.

気が付けば 私が開いた空間で

Just plead guilty.

人々が 自らにとって 本当に重要な事を話していました

You can kiss your kids goodnight tonight."

そして私自身にも新たな目的意識が 生まれてきました

So you do what anybody would do in that situation.

去り行く老人としてでなく

You plead guilty whether you did it or not.

役割を持って前進する者としての

But now you have a criminal record

目的意識です

that's going to follow you for the rest of your life.

私が若かった頃には

Jailing people because they don't have enough money to pay bail

ほとんどの人が70代で亡くなりました

is one of the most unfair, immoral things we do as a society.

今では人々は遥かに長生きで

But it is also expensive and counterproductive.

人類史において初めて

American taxpayers --

４世代同居が普通になりました

they spend 14 billion dollars annually holding people in jail cells

私は71才で

who haven't been convicted of anything.

ちょっと運が良ければ

That's 40 million dollars a day.

まだ20から30年先があります

What's perhaps more confounding is it doesn't make us any safer.

今私の物をあげて

Research is clear that holding somebody in jail

友人 家族 そして出来れば見知らぬ人とも それを分かち合うことは

makes you significantly more likely to commit a crime when you get out

私が人生の次の段階に入るための 完ぺきな手段に思えます

than if you had been free all along.

結局それは まさに私が求めていたことです

Freedom makes all the difference.

それは すなわち 死にまつわるものというより

Low-income communities

次に何が起きようとも ドアを開けて

and communities of color have known that for generations.

招き入れる儀礼なのです

Together, they have pooled their resources to buy their loved ones freedom

有り難うございました

for as long as bondage and jail cells existed.

（拍手）

But the reach of the criminal legal system has grown too enormous,

前進！

and the numbers have just too large.

（拍手）

99 percent of jail growth in America has been the result --

over the last 20 years --

of pre-trial incarceration.

I have been a public defender for over half my life,

and I have stood by and watched thousands of clients

as they were dragged into those jail cells

because they didn't have enough money to pay bail.

I have watched as questions of justice were subsumed by questions of money,

calling into question the legitimacy of the entire American legal system.

I am here to say something simple --

something obvious,

but something urgent.

Freedom makes all the difference,

and freedom should be free.

(Applause)

But how are we going to make that happen?

Well, that's the question I was wrestling with over a decade ago

when I was sitting at a kitchen table with my husband, David,

who is also a public defender.

We were eating our Chinese takeout and venting about the injustice of it all

when David looked up and said,

"Why don't we just start a bail fund,

and just start bailing our clients out of jail?"

And in that unexpected moment,

the idea for the Bronx Freedom Fund was born.

Look, we didn't know what to expect.

There were plenty of people that told us we were crazy

and we were going to lose all of the money.

People wouldn't come back because they didn't have any stake in it.

But what if clients did come back?

We knew that bail money comes back at the end of a criminal case,

so it could come back into the fund,

and we could use it over and over again for more and more bail.

That was our big bet,

and that bet paid off.

Over the past 10 years,

we have been paying bails for low-income residents of New York City,

and what we have learned has exploded our ideas

of why people come back to court

and how the criminal legal system itself is operated.

Turns out money isn't what makes people come back to court.

We know this because when the Bronx Freedom Fund pays bail,

96 percent of clients return for every court appearance,

laying waste to the myth that it's money that mattered.

It's powerful evidence that we don't need cash

or ankle bracelets

or unnecessary systems of surveillance and supervision.

We simply need court reminders --

simple court reminders about when to come back to court.

Next, we learned that if you're held in jail on a misdemeanor,

90 percent of people will plead guilty.

But when the fund pays bail,

over half the cases are dismissed.

And in the entire history of the Bronx Freedom Fund,

fewer than two percent of our clients have ever received a jail sentence

of any kind.

(Applause)

Ramel, a week later --

he was still on the boat, locked in that jail cell.

He was on the cusp of losing everything,

and he was about to plead guilty,

and the Bronx Freedom Fund intervened and paid his bail.

Now, reunited with his daughter,

he was able to fight his case from outside.

Look, it took some time --

two years, to be exact --

but at the end of that,

his case was dismissed in its entirety.

For Ramel --

(Applause)

For Ramel, the Bronx Freedom Fund was a lifeline,

but for countless other Americans locked in jail cells,

there is no freedom fund coming.

It's time to do something about that.

It's time to do something big.

It's time to do something bold.

It's time to do something, maybe, audacious?

(Laughter)

We want to take our proven, revolving bail-fund model

that we built in the Bronx

and spread it across America,

attacking the front end of the legal system

before incarceration begins.

(Applause)

(Cheers)

(Applause)

Here's the plan.

(Applause)

We're going to bail out as many people as we can

as quickly as we can.

Over the next five years,

partnering with public defenders and local community organizations,

we're going to set up 40 sites in high-need jurisdictions.

The goal is to bail out 160,000 people.

Our strategy leverages the fact

that bail money comes back at the end of a case.

Data from the Bronx

shows that a dollar can be used two or three times a year,

creating a massive force multiplier.

So a dollar donated today can be used to pay bail for up to 15 people

over the next five years.

Our strategy also relies on the experience and the wisdom and the leadership

of those who have experienced this injustice firsthand.

(Applause)

Each bail project site will be staffed by a team of bail disrupters.

These are passionate, dedicated advocates from local communities,

many of whom were formerly incarcerated themselves,

who will pay bails and support clients

while their cases are going through the legal system,

providing them with whatever resources and support they may need.

Our first two sites are up and running.

One in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

and one in St. Louis, Missouri.

And Ramel?

He's training right now to be a bail disrupter in Queens County, New York.

(Applause)

Our next three sites are ready to launch

in Dallas, Detroit and Louisville, Kentucky.

The Bail Project will attack the money bail system

on an unprecedented scale.

We will also listen, collect and elevate

and honor the stories of our clients

so that we can change hearts and minds,

and we will collect critical, national data