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 "custody" ...
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Death in Police Custody
An investigation into the death of a man who suffocated while in the back of a Milwaukee police squad car found officers had violated department policy in not seeking help and the medical examiner missed key signs pointing toward the officers’ actions being a factor in the death. The stories prompted a wave of action and reform: new departmental rules, a public inquest, an FBI investigation and the resignation of the medical examiner.
Tags: Police; death; department policy; medical examiner
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Parking Patients
"Parking Patients" examined the amount of time hospitals in the Memphis area were taking to assume custody of patients brought to their emergency departments by city ambulances. In hundreds of cases we found patients were spending hours strapped to ambulance stretchers, waiting inside emergency departments for hospital staff to sign off on the transfer of care. In the meantime, city paramedics were tied up waiting with the patients and unavailable to answer other emergency calls. We found dozens of cases in the last year in which the city ran out of available ambulances to answer these calls, and had to rely on private companies to fill the gap, sometimes resulting in longer response times. The fire department blamed these shortages on the practice of hospitals using paramedics as "free labor."
Tags: broadcast; hospitals; paramedics; patients; waiting; ambulances
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The Nightmare
The story of how Swedish authorities took two small children in protective custody after a single phone call. The children's father was charged with sexual abuse of the children and the mother of complicity in the crimes. Although both parents were totally innocent, their lives, and the lives of the children, turned into a nightmare.
Tags: Sweden; authorities; protective custody; sexual abuse; wrongful accusation
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Japan: Hiding America's Children
The story of 15 American fathers whose children were spirited away by their Japanese mothers. ABC News uncovered how these women have used the Japanese government's protection to keep their children hidden. FBI warrants, Interpol notices, U.S. custody decisions - none are recognized or enforced by the Japanese courts or law enforcement, leaving the fathers essentially helpless when it came to exercising their parental rights once the children were kidnapped to Japan.
Tags: abduction; Japan; United States; children
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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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A Horrible Answer
Fire years into massive reforms, Washington, D.C.'s pledge to create a more compassionate juvenile justice system remains unfulfilled, and youth in the custody of the city are killing and dying at epidemic proportions. This series looked comprehensively at the statistics and the stories behind a year's worth of deadly violence among juveniles in the custody of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), in most cases because they had a juvenile criminal record. Reporters found that during the year they studied, one in five homicides in the city involved a youth in the custody of the city as either a victim or a suspect.
Tags: Juvenile; Washington, D.C.; Crime; Violence; Youth; State; Homicide; Ward of City; Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services; DYRS
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"The Advocate: Tacoma advocate for domestic violence victims faces ethics case"
China Fortson, Tacoma's first "full-time advocate" for victims of domestic violence, overstepped her professional boundaries when she became too involved in a divorce and custody battle between a local couple in which there was no evidence of abuse. She used taxpayer money to break the law and helped her client "illegally flee the state."
Tags: domestic violence; abuse; China Fortson; Tacoma; custody battle; divorce; City of Tacoma
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Vanishing Act
“Nine-year-old Christian Ferguson went missing one summer morning in 2003 while in the custody of his father”. At first the story received a great deal of coverage, but as the years passed only a few stories covered the disappearance. Further, the public hadn’t heard the account from the police and that they had a suspect in custody, until now.
Tags: cold case; vanish; detectives; law enforcement; investigation; mystery; family; judicial system
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Day-care dangers; DCFS: Guilty until proven innocent; DCFS Declassified
The series focused on how the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services protects children and found problems, including a state law with wording so flawed it couldn't work, major errors in investigating alleged child abuse that ended up accusing innocent parents and repeated errors in the investigation of a murdered boy.
Tags: children; DCFS; Kalab Lay; custody; child abuse; sex offender
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Death by Detention
Boubacar Bah slipped into a coma at an immigration jail in New Jersey after hitting his head while in custody and then shackled in a disciplinary cell for 13 hours.
Tags: Central Falls; Rhode Island; customs enforcement; skull fracture; comatose;