The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Bail" ...
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The Village Voice: Bail is Busted
"Bail is Busted" examines the way bail is used in criminal cases in New York City, the profoundly discriminatory outcomes it produces, and efforts to reform the bail system.
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Bail Bondsmen: Working the Numbers
A year-long investigation into the bail bond industry by the Dallas Morning News focused on the relationship between bail bondsmen, the judicial system, and the county government. The investigation uncovered corrupt practices, sweetheart deals, and dysfunctional oversight that cost taxpayers many millions of dollars.
Tags: Bail Bondsmen; County Government; Judicial System; Sweetheart Deals
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Getting Away With Attempted Murder
WXYZ-TV exposed broken bail bond system in the state's busiest courts that led to major reforms.
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Bailed Out Banks Snap Up Tax Liens
Many big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers were not helping those taxpayers, but instead buying tax liens. Many of those tax liens purchases were in the same neighborhoods as homes those same banks were foreclosing on.
Tags: banks; foreclosure; tax liens
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When Florida Fugitives Flee the Country, Justice Rarely Follows
The story examines a bail bond woman's questionable practices.
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Bail Bond Investigation
The investigation uncovered major loopholes in a bail bond system which allowed countless defendants to get out of jail by posting bogus bonds.
Tags: bail bonds; corruption; loophole; bondsmen; jail
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"Breaking Down Bond Court"
In Cook Country, very little attention is given to bond hearings. However, the hearings can have a major impact on the defendant's life and "have ripple effects for taxpayers and communities." In this story, reporters Tony Arnold and Cate Cahan reveal "rushed hearings," the errors that occur and the "drastic consequences" they have for the defendants and their families.
Tags: bond; bail; Cook County; Chicago; judge; electronic monitoring; lawsuit
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"Hounded:Debtors and the new breed of collectors"
In this series, reporters Chris Serres and Glenn Howatt reveal how debt collection has become a "profitable industry." In additional to missteps taken by collection agencies, this series also reveals how people are being arrested for failing to pay bills. Their bail has often been set at the exact amount of the debt that they owe.
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The Mysterious Death of Janie Ward
This hour-long report is a result of a five-year investigation into the death of a 16-year-old girl 20 years ago in a small town in the Ozarks. It's about two daughters -- one wealthy and popular (a cheerleader and beauty queen); the other poor and self-conscious. It's about two fathers -- one a powerful judge who allegedly shielded his daughter from the law he's sworn to uphold; the other a bail bondsman who is trying to avenge his daughter's death. And it's about one family's fight for justice against what they believe is a corrupt judicial system that closed ranks around the powerful judge to cover-up a murder. When 16-year-old Jamie Ward fell off a 9-inch porch in the woods near Marshall, Ark., on September 9, 1989, her parents refused to blieve that the fall had killed their healthy teenager. Instead, they began to suspect to suspect she was murdered by the judge's daughter. After years of demanding an investigation into her death, an independent medical examiner associated with Parents for Murdered Children exhumed Janie's body a second time for an extremely rare third autopsy. Because the case was 20 years old, most of the files were not digital; rather, the investigation focused on old-fashioned reporting: finding and interviewing eyewitnesses (all of whom had not been reinterviewed since the original investigation); analyzing inconsistencies in the witness statements, double-checking the forensics with independent experts.
Tags: autopsy; unsolved death; forensic science; criminal justice system; reopened cases; Arkansas
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics