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 "corrections" ...
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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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Detroit Free Press: Free to Kill
“Free to Kill,” a seven-month Detroit Free Press investigation, found the Michigan Department of Corrections failed to properly supervise some of the most violent of the state’s roughly 70,000 offenders under its watch. A total of 88 parolees and probationers were suspected, arrested or convicted in 95 murders between Jan. 1, 2010, and Aug. 31, 2011. The number nearly doubled from 2010 to 2011 -- from 21 to 38. The series also revealed that dozens of offenders weren't outfitted with court-ordered electronic tethers, and others weren't sent back to prison for new crimes or failed drug tests.
Tags: Department of Corrections; violence; criminals; drug tests
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The Price of Prisons
This series of stories, reported over the course of six months, examined four aspects of the Arizona Department of Corrections' management of the state prison system.
Tags: Arizon Deparment of Corrections; Prisons; Arizona; Mismanagement
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Young Kids, Hard Time
A documentary on the lives of convicted juveniles - some as young as 12 - serving decades in the adult correctional system.
Tags: juvenile; crime; adult; correctional; system; sentencing; prison
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Scandal in Illinois Workers' Compensation System
More than 230 guards at the Menard Correctional Center, a maximum security Illinois prison, claimed to have acquired carpal tunnel syndrome of the wrist by turning keys or operating cell locking mechanisms. These claims resulted in in taxpayer-funded partial disability payments totaling more than $10 million paid to guards who returned to work full-time operating the same locks.
Tags: Menard Correctional Center; prison; carpal tunnel syndrome
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Hell Hole
The AZ Department of Corrections stuck a psychotic prisoner on the cusp of being released into a single person cell with a first-degree killer serving a lengthy sentence. The result: The killer mutilated and murdered the seriously mentally ill man, who was serving a short sentence for climbing up a power pole during an electrical storm.
Tags: Prison; Mentally Ill
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Corrective Rape
This story by ESPN highlights the notion of "corrective rape" in South Africa, where "men rape women to 'cure' them of their lesbianism." The 2008 rape and murder of former soccer player Eudy Simelane spurred an entire investigation into the practice of "corrective rape" in and around South Africa. The country continues to struggle with "sexual violence and homophobia."
Tags: Lesbian and Gay Equality Project; homosexuality; gay; lesbian; rape; South Africa
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What Violent Criminals Could Be Paroled
The North Carolina Department of Correction had many of inmates facing life sentences set to be paroled with the public unaware while the governor and attorney general attempted to keep these men from walking out the front door.
Tags: prison; murders; North Carolina
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ICE quietly relaxes ban on using stun gun on jailed detainees
MPR "brought to light the troubling story of an immigrant detainee shot in the testicle with a Taser gun while in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a Minnesota jail. They further revealed ICE retroactively changed its ban on jails using stung guns against ICE detainees due to pressure from local law enforcement. ICE continued to send hundreds of detainees to jails rated "deficient" and quietly reversed the failing grades."
Tags: Immigration and Customs Enforcement; ICE; immigrants; detainees; stun gun; Taser; Minnesota Department of Corrections
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Secret early release of Illinois prisoners
The series finds that the Illinois state government had secretly released 1,700 inmates from prison early in an attempt to save money and reduce overcrowding. Many of those released had committed violent crimes or been convicted of driving under the influence.
Tags: prison; state prison; criminals; meritorious good time; Department of Corrections