A few of Our Finest Work of 2022

Midterm elections, reproductive rights and immigration coverage had been main nationwide tales in 2022. With that because the backdrop, The Marshall Challenge scrutinized prosecutions of pregnant ladies with addictions; investigated Texas’ pricey and politically-hyped border initiative; and partnered with researchers on a groundbreaking nationwide survey of sheriffs’ attitudes on immigration, race and the sanctity of the Structure.

Our reporters shined a lightweight on abuses in a Louisiana juvenile detention facility and the usage of felony homicide legal guidelines to condemn individuals to life with out parole even once they didn’t intend to hurt anybody. The information workforce documented gaping holes in FBI crime information and examined how a lot federal COVID reduction cash was spent on native policing budgets fairly than different providers.

As an indication of our continued dedication to impactful reporting, we launched The Marshall Challenge’s first native information operation in Cleveland with a workforce of award-winning journalists with deep ties to the group. They’re led by veteran journalists Jim Crutchfield, editor-in-chief of the Cleveland newsroom, and Marlon Walker, managing editor, native.

As all the time, The Marshall Challenge stays dedicated to rigorous, goal and honest investigative reporting, to exposing the failings of the U.S. prison justice system and drawing consideration to potential reforms. As we take inventory of our work in 2022, we need to categorical our gratitude for readers such as you. Your contributions are very important to our journalism.

The facility of policing

Sheriffs are energy brokers of their communities, however how a lot do constituents find out about their views? Reporter Maurice Chammah teamed up with two main students to survey greater than 500 sheriffs. Knowledge reporters Katie Park and Anastasia Valeeva, led by information editor David Eads, dissected the survey outcomes, discovering that sheriffs are way more conservative than Individuals as an entire and that many imagine their energy supersedes the governor or president. The survey additionally confirmed that sheriffs are likely to view the 2020 protests over the police homicide of George Floyd as biased in opposition to legislation enforcement, though many are open to some reforms.

In “Anatomy of a Homicide Confession,” Chammah additionally scrutinized the profession of Texas Ranger James Holland, who is known for getting suspects to confess guilt utilizing hypnosis, hypothetical descriptions of crimes and different questionable approaches.

Reporter Christie Thompson instructed the story of Armando Navejas, a 70-year-old El Paso man with Parkinson’s illness and dementia who wandered away from dwelling and died after police fired a stun gun at his again. “As Police Arrest Extra Seniors, These With Dementia Face Lethal Penalties” documented the rising variety of arrests of individuals age 65 and older and the lethal penalties for some with dementia.

In Houston, reporter Keri Blakinger teamed up with New York Instances reporter David Fahrenthold to disclose that the native Crime Stoppers had shifted from non-partisanship to open criticism of what it referred to as activist judges. The reporters discovered that message was tied into the group’s elevated funding from state grants backed by the governor.

The Marshall Challenge additionally partnered with NPR on Embedded: Altering the Police, a five-part podcast analyzing whether or not reform efforts within the Yonkers, New York, police division are working. Reporter Wilbert L. Cooper explored why there are so few officers of coloration on the Yonkers police drive, and Thompson seemed on the influence of police answering psychological well being calls.

Youth in solitary

After Louisiana officers quietly opened a high-security juvenile lockup in mid-2021, Marshall Challenge reporter Beth Schwartzapfel together with NBC Information’ Erin Einhorn and ProPublica’s Annie Waldman began wanting into whether or not the younger individuals there have been getting instructional and different providers they had been alleged to get. In “‘No Gentle. No Nothing.’ Inside Louisiana’s Harshest Juvenile Lockup,” we revealed that not solely had the teenagers been held there for months with out education, they had been locked of their cells for at the very least 23 hours a day for weeks on finish. Our reporting prompted the state legislature to go a legislation limiting the usage of solitary confinement for youth.

Thomson federal jail: ‘One of many deadliest’

The brand new federal jail at Thomson, Illinois, was alleged to make the system safer. However reporter Christie Thompson and NPR reporter Joe Shapiro discovered that it has rapidly turn out to be one of many deadliest federal lockups. Our reporting uncovered how males housed at Thomson jail lived underneath the specter of violence from cellmates, in addition to brutality by the hands of workers. Not less than 5 males have been killed since 2019, and plenty of extra reported being shackled in cuffs so tight they left scars, or being chained by every limb to a mattress for hours. The story has already had a nationwide influence. Two days after our investigation was printed, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos despatched a letter to the Justice Division’s Inspector Common calling for a right away federal investigation into Thomson penitentiary, based mostly on our reporting. The inspector basic introduced on June 9 they had been formally opening an investigation.

Reporting on Cleveland

We launched our first-ever native reporting workforce in Cleveland in June, and our work there may be already having an influence. Reporters Mark Puente and Cid Standifer delved into the $60 million spent on a police consent decree in Cleveland, and Puente and Rachel Dissell examined the secrecy round police cameras within the metropolis. Puente, Standifer and Stan Donaldson Jr. additionally investigated the village of Bratenahl’s sample of ticketing largely Black drivers from Cleveland. Within the wake of the Bratenahl investigation, state Rep. Juanita Brent plans to introduce laws requiring police businesses to report race information when making visitors stops. “The one manner we are able to make systemic change (in policing) is with the info,” she stated.

We started our in-depth reporting in Cleveland earlier than we had an area newsroom there. Over the previous yr, Dissell, Ilica Mahajan, Anna Flagg and Wesley Lowery took a tough take a look at the Cuyahoga County courts — who’s working them and who’s biking by way of them. Our “Testify” venture examined six years of court docket information and located that Black residents are arrested and despatched to jail at disproportionate charges. We additionally combed tens of hundreds of Cuyahoga County court docket data and located that though the overwhelming majority of defendants have a earlier cost on their report, most of them aren’t for critical violent offenses.

As well as, Cleveland outreach supervisor Louis Fields is in command of getting our journalism into Ohio’s prisons and jails.

Aggressive prosecutions

In an investigation with The Frontier and AL.com, reporters Cary Aspinwall and Andrew Rodriguez Calderón discovered that greater than 50 ladies have been prosecuted for little one neglect or manslaughter in america since 1999 as a result of they examined optimistic for drug use after a miscarriage or stillbirth. A lot of the instances had been in Alabama, South Carolina and Oklahoma, with a scattering in 9 different states the place prosecutors have embraced some type of “fetal personhood” in bringing prison fees after miscarriage or stillbirth. Lots of the ladies, who’re largely poor and fighting habit, confronted prolonged jail sentences. The medical group views these instances as counter-productive, however authorized specialists anticipate the follow to unfold after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade. The story was co-edited and printed in partnership with The Washington Submit.

In “Fetterman and Oz Battle Over Pennsylvania’s Felony Homicide Regulation,” Aspinwall and reporter Abbie VanSickle examined the usage of felony homicide legal guidelines in Pennsylvania to condemn individuals to life with out parole even when they didn’t fireplace a weapon or imply to kill anybody. Our reporting discovered racial inequities within the utility of the legislation, which permits no sentencing leeway. Of the greater than 1,100 individuals within the state serving life sentences underneath the legislation, almost 70% of them are Black in a state with about 12% Black residents.

Patrolling the border

Led first by Gov. Rick Perry and now by Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas has spent billions of {dollars} on a sequence of border initiatives since 2005, the newest referred to as Operation Lone Star. The Marshall Challenge’s Andrew Rodriguez Calderón, ProPublica’s Lomi Kriel and Perla Trevizo with The Texas Tribune investigated how the cash has been used and the veracity of claims in regards to the effectiveness of Operation Lone Star. Our reporting in

“Texans Spend Billions on Border Operations. What Do They Get in Return?” discovered that the numbers the state used to reveal the operation’s success included arrests that had nothing to do with the border or immigration. State officers even have misstated or failed to supply verification for claims they’ve made about arrests alongside the border. They usually couldn’t present a breakdown of state-led operations since 2005, their period, price to taxpayers or achievements.

“No Place for A Youngster,” a broader take a look at operations alongside the U.S. border with Mexico by reporters Julia Preston and Anna Flagg, discovered that certainly one of each three individuals held in a Border Patrol facility since early 2017 was a minor. That could be a a lot greater share than had been reported earlier than. Greater than 220,000 of the 650,000 kids underneath age 18 detained between February 2017 and June 2021 had been held for longer than 72 hours, which is the restrict outlined by courts and statute. Advocates and households leaving border services described depressing total situations, together with stale meals, a scarcity of fundamental medical care and even dry garments.

Utilizing information to inform tales

When the FBI changed its century-old system for amassing crime information in 2021, information reporter Weihua Li knew there can be glitches. Her examination of the newest FBI information this yr discovered huge gaps in crime stats when 7,000 legislation enforcement businesses failed to modify to the brand new system. That’s almost 40% of businesses nationwide. The dearth of correct crime information has broad ramifications for communities, as our companions at Axios documented in 20 cities of their reporting community. Li, Andrew Rodriguez Calderón and David Eads additionally created a searchable database permitting readers to see what number of police departments of their state had submitted crime information and what their native company had accomplished.

In “Rifles, Tasers and Jails: How Cities and States Spent Billions of COVID-19 Aid,” Li, Anastasia Valeeva and Susie Cagle dug into information on the American Rescue Plan Act and located that billions of {dollars} in COVID reduction cash had gone to native legislation enforcement, corrections and courts. The cash went to salaries and tools, together with tasers, rifles, vehicles and taking pictures ranges. The Marshall Challenge discovered that 5 municipalities used funding to buy armored autos. Once more, Axios partnered with us to look at how prioritizing police fairly than different providers affected native communities.

life inside prisons

Reporter Beth Schwartzapfel and Lawrence Bartley, writer of The Marshall Challenge Inside, corresponded with dozens of incarcerated individuals in 2022 in regards to the cash they make in jail, how they spend it and the way they can cowl their fundamental wants and comforts. “Jail Cash Diaries: What Individuals Actually Make (and Spend) Behind Bars” was a revealing take a look at the underground jail economic system.

4 Philadelphia moms whose sons had been murdered shared the tales of their grief with reporter Lakeidra Chavis. Dr. Dorothy Johnson-Speight, a licensed household therapist and founding father of the Moms In Cost help group, stated: “I had expertise with grief and ache: Earlier than Khaaliq was killed, I misplaced my mother, my dad, my solely sibling, and a daughter to an sickness. However none of that in comparison with his demise. Homicide complicates the mourning course of.” The 4 ladies had been featured in “Heaven: Can You Hear Me?,” a brief documentary about grief and restoration that aired on the World Channel and PBS.

In “I Had a Excessive-Danger Being pregnant in Jail — Then I Gave Delivery in Chains,” Rebecca Figueroa, a 38-year-old mom and school pupil, shared her horrifying expertise of going by way of a high-risk being pregnant and delivering her daughter whereas jailed on Lengthy Island. The fees in opposition to her had been ultimately dropped and the decide apologized. Carla Canning, a Tow viewers engagement fellow at The Marshall Challenge, labored on the essay with Figueroa.

Dying sentences

Reporters Maurice Chammah and Keri Blakinger continued our longtime protection of the demise penalty, analyzing the controversy round capital punishment and who’s dealing with execution. “They Went to Jail as Children. Now They’re on Dying Row” seemed on the function of juvenile establishments on later prison habits amongst individuals sentenced to demise. Blakinger and Chammah additionally wrote a couple of psychiatrist whose testimony helped put Ramiro Gonzales on demise row, however later modified his thoughts about whether or not Gonzales was a hazard to society. In “How Melissa Lucio Went From Abuse Survivor to Dying Row,” Chammah analyzed the rising understanding that trauma victims usually tend to take accountability for crimes they didn’t commit.

Jail city royalty

Keri Blakinger explored the outsized influence of the jail economic system on Texas communities in “The Rise and Fall of a Jail City Queen,” She instructed the story by way of Melinda Brewer, who briefly dominated because the First Girl of Huntsville, Texas, a kingdom one native described as a “cross between Sport of Thrones and a Walmart.” Brewer labored her manner as much as upkeep and development supervisor for 100 state prisons. When her husband grew to become regional director of the seven prisons within the Huntsville space, she grew to become native royalty. But it surely all fell aside due to a household feud over medication, cash and fried fish.

The uneasy state of prisons and jails

For greater than a decade, the Texas jail system has failed to handle state fireplace inspectors’ considerations about insufficient alarm techniques. With out sprinklers or functioning alarms, Keri Blakinger reported in “Burned to Dying in a Jail Cell,” fires in some housing areas have burned for hours. In 2022, Jacinto De La Garza and Damien Bryant died six months aside in cell fires. Blakinger examined how their deaths may need been prevented.

In Mississippi, our investigation into jail operations over the previous a number of years led the state auditor to order Administration & Coaching Company to repay almost $2 million for improper billing for “ghost employees.” Reporters Joseph Neff and Alysia Santo had reported in 2020 that MTC collected thousands and thousands of {dollars} in Mississippi by charging the corrections division for vacant safety positions the corporate was required to fill.

Felony disenfranchisement

Roughly 20 states have handed legal guidelines increasing voting rights for individuals on probation or parole or individuals who have accomplished a sentence for a felony conviction. However that hasn’t essentially made it simpler for them to vote. After previously incarcerated individuals had been arrested in August in Florida on voting fraud fees stemming from the 2020 election, Nicole Lewis and Alexandra Arriaga seemed on the chilling impact on previously incarcerated voters in different states. Specifically, voting advocates in Alabama and Georgia noticed a ripple impact.

Earlier within the yr, Arriaga, Ilica Mahajan, Andrew Rodriguez Calderón and Weihua Li revealed that state paperwork given to individuals leaving jail in Colorado wrongly led them to imagine anybody on parole was forbidden to vote. We additionally produced a downloadable explainer on how they might register.

Increasing newsletters and viewers

In our ongoing effort to ensure we give readers probably the most in-depth protection of prison justice doable, we revised Closing Argument, our weekly wrap-up e-newsletter. As a substitute of an inventory of the week’s greatest tales from us and others across the nation, reporter Jamiles Lartey is digging right into a single problem. He finds probably the most pertinent new tales and evaluation to light up the difficulty of the week. To launch our new Closing Argument in July, he did a deep dive into the authorized ramifications of the Supreme Courtroom’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. A couple of weeks later, he checked out how policing has and hasn’t modified for the reason that homicide of George Floyd in 2020. He additionally teamed up with information reporter Weihua Li to have a look at the impossibility of figuring out the place crime stands with ongoing gaps within the FBI’s crime information. Then, reporter Daphne Duret explored what San Francisco’s killer robotic debate says about policing.

Additionally this yr, The Marshall Challenge employed Rachel Kincaid as our first e-newsletter supervisor. Kincaid has enriched our e mail outreach to readers, making a e-newsletter for our new Cleveland newsroom, managing greater than a half dozen common newsletters and offering readers and donors behind-the-scenes seems at our investigatory initiatives.

Ashley Dye additionally joined our information workforce in 2022 as viewers engagement supervisor. They energized our Instagram and Twitter accounts, elevated our presence on Reddit and labored with our publishing companions on inventive social media collaborations to achieve a wider viewers.