The Grand Challenges for Social Work developed by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AAS-WSW) offer opportunities for the profession to confront pervasive societal issues. Although these challenges outline varying large-scale aims for social work, each also advocates for innovative strategies that can be readily implemented throughout areas of practice. The challenge to “promote smart decarceration” is no exception with the overarching goal of reimagining the current criminal justice system through progressive evidence-based approaches that transcend discipline and professional divisions (AASWSW, 2017). The need is clear as the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world by both number and ratio incapacitated. It is not surprising that these substantial figures are accompanied by immense social and economic costs. Direct cost estimations indicate that our country pays “nearly $300 billion annually to police communities and incarcerate 2.2 million people,” amounting to approximately $134,400 per imprisoned person (O’Neill Hayes, 2020, para. 1; also see Hyland, 2019). Social costs are more often indirect, accruing and conflating over time, and rippling out into families and communities. Although more difficult to calculate with accuracy, when the cost of lost wages, poor health, and long-term negative outcomes for families of those incarcerated are monetized, the sum expense of our criminal justice system rises to $1.2 trillion, which increases this burden threefold (O’Neill Hayes, 2020). Current direct and indirect costs reflect a significant economic and social problem that largely overlooks moral considerations for the worth of human life and ability to change (AASWSW, 2017; Pettus-Davis & Epperson, 2015).

中文翻译：

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促进智慧脱贫的研究、实践和政策策略

美国社会工作与社会福利学院 (AAS-WSW) 制定的社会工作大挑战为该行业提供了应对普遍社会问题的机会。尽管这些挑战概述了社会工作的不同大规模目标，但每个挑战都倡导可以在整个实践领域轻松实施的创新策略。“促进智能脱贫”的挑战也不例外，其总体目标是通过超越学科和专业部门的渐进式循证方法重新构想当前的刑事司法系统（AASWSW，2017 年）。这种需求是显而易见的，因为无论从数量上还是在失能比例上，美国都拥有世界上最多的被监禁人口。这些庞大的数字伴随着巨大的社会和经济成本也就不足为奇了。直接成本估算表明，我们国家“每年向警察社区支付近 3000 亿美元并监禁 220 万人”，每名被监禁者约为 134,400 美元（O'Neill Hayes，2020 年，第 1 段；另见 Hyland，2019 年）。社会成本通常是间接的，随着时间的推移累积和合并，并波及到家庭和社区。虽然更难以准确计算，但当将被监禁者家庭的工资损失、健康状况不佳和长期负面结果的成本货币化时，我们的刑事司法系统的总费用上升到 1.2 万亿美元，这使这一负担增加了三倍（奥尼尔海耶斯，2020）。