For decades, states have expanded laws that punish repeat offenders more harshly even if they commit minor crimes. With support from the Fund, Tana Geneva took a deep look at prison populations in Mississippi and Louisiana, filing freedom of information requests for data on people serving 20-year-plus sentences. The data shows that there are nearly 2,000 people in the two states serving ...
In Hola Cultura’s series of eight podcasts and three online news stories, reporters in Washington, DC, with support from the Fund, explored how the legacy of redlining and other forms of housing discrimination have had dire consequences for many DC neighborhoods. The series looked at the lack of green spaces and the impact of heat islands on these densely populated urban blocks, whose ...
Reporter Katherine Reynolds Lewis, with support from the Fund, looked at how a rural Tennessee school district turned to an app to help change its practices after being censured for imposing discipline disproportionately on Black students and those with disabilities. The new technology promised to aid in the use of restorative practices, which have been hailed for positive results in ...
Earlier this year, Alaska’s top child-abuse expert resigned after Wisconsin Watch uncovered serious questions about her work in both Wisconsin and Alaska. With one of the Fund’s new follow-up grants, Wisconsin Watch has continued to track Dr. Barbara Knox, who is now working for University of Florida. Reporter Hope Karnopp waded through more than 150 pages of records from the ...
Freelance health care reporter Taylor Knopf dug into North Carolina’s already-strapped mental health system and obtained new data showing that the system has buckled since the COVID-19 pandemic. People in the state are increasingly relying on emergency rooms and even involuntary commitments to obtain mental health services. Knopf’s series of reports, co-published with NC Health News and WRAL-TV in Raleigh, ...
While other criminal justice reform advanced in Connecticut over the last couple of years, one increasingly contentious issue was untouched – elimination of cash bail. With support from the Fund, reporter Kelan Lyons of the Connecticut Mirror spent a year observing court proceedings in Hartford and New Britain, conducting several dozen interviews, and crunching state data to show that even ...
With one of the Fund’s new follow-up grants, which help grantees continue reporting stories after the initial investigation is published, High Country News and the Nevada Independent uncovered a pattern of Nevada Gold Mines jeopardizing worker safety and limiting reports of accidents. After their initial story ran earlier this year, reporters Nick Bowlin and Daniel Rothberg received a wave of ...
For decades, the federal government has known that climate change will force people in the U.S. to relocate – but has failed to provide funding or a plan to help them. As a result, communities are left in harm’s way as floods, hurricanes, fires and other climate-related disasters mount. A team of journalists, with a grant from the Fund, spent ...
A major development project in New York City promised benefits to the community – but those commitments have not been kept and there is often no way to hold developers accountable in such situations, reporter Neil deMause found in an investigation for CityLimits. With a grant from the Fund, deMause dug into community benefits agreements, or CBAs, that are touted ...
In Hawaii, 85 percent of children who were removed from their parents in abuse and neglect cases last year were removed without a court order. Hawaii Civil Beat’s John Hill has produced an extensive series supported by the Fund, which has chronicled the clash of parental rights and workers who manage child protective services, including police. His latest story highlighted a ruling ...