阅读文章理解 - 柯帕斯英语网

2 阅读文章理解

“Clemency is increasingly being cast as an act of mercy, as opposed to what I think is a gubernatorial obligation,” Zeidman told me. “To me, clemency is about saying to the governor, ‘This system gave me fifty years to life when I was sixteen, and you have the power to rectify that.’

曹老师我想请教一下，这里的"this system"指的还是"clemency"宽赦制度了么，应该怎么理解小引号里面这句话呢？

Coleman seems to hope that the law can acknowledge that he has been punished enough, and that society might be better off if he were free.

老师这里这个条件从句我有点不理解，Coleman希望社会可能会更好，如果他被释放的话，我感觉这个条件在这里有点说不通，不知道这个句子该如何理解。如果是第一种理解的话，我感觉if改成when→当他被释放的时候，社会可能会更好，会不会合适一些。

谢谢曹老师的解答，万分感谢您！！