Investigations by Fund for Investigative Journalism grantees about youth homes in Idaho and Louisiana have led to changes and sparked calls for reform of the troubled field. In Idaho, a home for at-risk teenage girls closed in February after months of reporting by InvestigateWest, with support from the Fund. Reporter Wilson Criscione documented allegations of serious wrongdoing, including rape, assault ...
The team of journalists that produced an 18-month investigation of prosecutorial misconduct in Ohio published a follow-up story showing that, in several cases, prosecutors withheld key evidence that could have led to acquittals. With support from the Fund, Columbia Journalism Investigations, NPR and member stations WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio, Ideastream Public Media and the Ohio Newsroom analyzed more than 1,600 appellate ...
In the second part of a Texas Observer investigation into conservative billionaires’ influence on public schools, Steven Monacelli reported on some school board members quietly hiring a GOP-affiliated law firm to draft a new policy targeting social issues such as “critical race theory,” “gender fluidity” and “potentially pornographic material.” With support from the Fund, Monacelli reported that when other board members ...
Oregon’s public schools have done little to educate students about the risks of substance abuse and how to combat addiction, according to a collaborative investigation by the LUND Report, the University of Oregon Journalism Project and Oregon Public Broadcasting, with support from the Fund. As part of the series, the team gathered curriculum from most of the state’s 197 public ...
Writing in the nonprofit environmental outlet Mongabay, with support from the Fund, Roberth Orihuela found that mines operated by U.S. companies in Peru have caused pollution for decades that harms local communities and ecosystems. In the Tacna and Moquegua regions, Southern Copper dumped 785 million metric tons of mining waste in Ite Bay, damaging an important fishing area. In Arequipa, ...
Following a year-long investigation by the Maine Monitor about problems in the state’s guardianship program for people unable to care for themselves, reporter Samantha Hogan has taken readers behind the scenes to share her reporting methods. Maine’s 16 independent, county-run probate courts are not a part of the state judicial branch but are run by part-time, elected judges responsible for ...
Hospitals often sue patients over unpaid medical bills in bulk, sometimes by the hundreds of thousands, even when people already face financial hardship or bankruptcy. Judgments against patients in these suits can derail someone’s life but, according to experts, they don’t bring hospitals much money. So why are hospitals motivated to go after their former patients? With support from the ...
Veteran Chicago journalist Ben Austen’s new book, “Correction: Parole, Prison and the Possibility of Change,” examines the criminal justice system through the experiences of two teens imprisoned for four decades after murder convictions and repeatedly denied parole. To research the book, with support from the Fund, Austen sat in on parole hearings in Illinois, visited prisons, halfway houses and clemency ...
As part of InvestigateWest’s ongoing investigation into the billion-dollar “troubled teen,” industry, supported by the Fund, the nonprofit newsroom published new in-depth pieces that analyzed problems at youth facilities across Idaho. The reporting detailed how Idaho officials rescued one girl but then sent her to a state-licensed facility where she was preyed upon again. The series has described an environment ...
The Baton Rouge Advocate and the Times Picayune, with support from the Fund, found that Louisiana’s home insurance market fell apart in recent years because the state moved insurance policies to small, regional companies with risky business models. Eleven of 12 home insurance companies that failed had sent hundreds of millions of dollars in premiums to affiliates, which are subject ...