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 "Correctional Officers" ...
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Catch and Release
California, using the term "realignment", chose to lessen the overcrowded prison population by paroling what corrections officials said were the least violent offenders on parole. Yet parole officers told KCRA that even sex offenders were now breaking the law - living with kids, near schools, even cutting off their GPS anklets - and facing no time in prison. Our investigation reviewed more than 8,000 parolees and their re-offenses over the last year. We also used internal sources to find that the state was preparing to review nearly ten thousand absconders in order to wipe them off the prison books.
Tags: Prison realignment; parole; sex offenders; parolees
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Go Army or Go to Jail
The Commanding General over recruiting for the entire United States Army had made a promise to KHOU: the overly aggressive, even illegal tactics the station uncovered three years earlier would be corrected. The station believed him. Sadly, they discovered they were sorely mistaken. "Go Army or Go to Jail" is a follow-up story but it also broke new ground in the investigation. The investigators uncovered new and illegal tactics the Army uses to force unwilling teenagers to join its ranks and solve a new problem: the number of participants in something called the delayed entry program had dwindled to an all-time low. Some recruiters' solution? To bully, threatened and lie to teenagers and their families in hopes of making mission and meeting quota. Their findings spurred the station to search for and discover what some believe is the very root of Army recruiting abuses that have gone on for years. The investigation contends that the U.S. Army has, quite simply, ignored recommendation after recommendation from the investigative arm of Congress on how the Army could reform.
Tags: U.S. Army; recruiting; investigation; follow-up; Houston; Texas; U.S. Government Accountability Office
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Failure to Report
After a 10-month long FOIA battle, Smith reveals internal-affairs reports about the suicides of two inmates who were mentally ill in the D.C. jail. The reports showed "an attempted cover-up and widespread misconduct by D.C. jail officials and a medical services contractor."
Tags: jail; prison; mental illness; FOIA; suicide; cover up; internal report; corrections officer; attorney general; Thomas Alemayehu; Alicia Edwards
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Prison Billing Investigation
"Three stories that resulted from a six-month investigation into Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office billing practices that uncovered double billing for inmates housed at the Orleans Parish Prison and resulted in a nearly $2 million repayment by the Criminal Sheriff to the city of New Orleans."
Tags: city government; sheriff; prison; prisoners; budget; billing; law enforcement; Louisiana Department of Corrections
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What's Wrong at DOC?
"This story exposes mistakes, missed opportunities and lax supervision at the Washington State Department of Corrections that led to the deaths of three local police officers at the hands of felons under the Department's supervision."
Tags: prisons, department of corrections; prisoner releases; arrest histories;
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Maryland Corrections Reforms Yield Mixed Results
"This story covers problems with violence in the Maryland corrections system, which saw four inmates and two officers killed in 2006 and three inmates killed in 2007. An analysis of state records showed that despite a pledge by Gov. Martin O'Malley to reform the system and the closing of a notorious prison, violence was still rampant in many prisons. Overall, serious attacks on officers declined in 2007, but the rate of inmate-on-inmate violence was similar to that of 2006, considered one of the worst in Maryland history."
Tags: prisons; violence; corrections system; inmate violence; prison reform
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The Death of Timothy Souders
CBS investigated the death of mentally-ill Timothy Souders at the Southern Michigan Correctional Center. During their investigation they discovered that "inmates with psychological problems are more likely to get in trouble with corrections officers, and thus more likely to be sentenced to solitary confinement and to stay in prison longer."
Tags: prison; mentally ill; solitary confinement; Timothy Souders; state institutions; mental illness
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The Wexford Files
To save money on its contract with the New Mexico state corrections department, Wexford Health Sources cut costs and provided poor health care to inmates. In the wake of Wexford's cost-cutting, "chronically sick inmates were routinely refused off-site specialty visits. Other inmates waited for days, even weeks, to receive critical prescription drug renewals. Still other inmates were forced to lie in their own feces because basic supplies, like bed sheets, were in such short order." In addition, staffing was a problem in prison medical units due to Wexford not filling vacant positions as yet another means of cost-cutting. In the end, people ranging from "Wexford's top medical officers in New Mexico to nurses and administrative employees" resigned as a result of the effect of the company's belt-tightening on their ability to help patients.
Tags: Prison hospitals; Wexford Health Souces; poor health care; New Mexico prison system
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No Show County Job
The authors investigated a public employee who, because of his position as president of the union was not required to report to his job as a corrections officer. For over ten years this man was paid for a job he never performed. This is permitted under a collective bargaining agreement that dates back to the 1970's.
Tags: Public office; unions; Erie county; FOIA; full union release; county bankruptcy
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Criminal Justice Chaos
This story compilation addresses numerous problems within the Texas Department of Corrections. Investigators found violations of government policies, parole officers with disciplinary problems, repeated employee negligence and even some of the worst criminals slipping through holes in the system to find new victims.
Tags: Texas; department of corrections; criminal justice; courts; probation and parole; crime; law enforcement; prisons; public safety; criminals