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 "modification" ...
-
California Prisons: Behavior Modification and Suppression of Due Process
The author uncovers evidence of cruelty and near torture in California's prisons. The abuse and suppression of inmate rights that pervaded these prisons was initially reported by researchers, but was covered up by officials.
Tags: prisons; torture; prison system
-
Foreclosure Rescue
Many homeowners are facing the threat of foreclosure and losing their homes. A new industry, mortgage modification, is taking advantage of these homeowners. These companies promise to work with the banks to get the homeowners a better deal so they can keep their houses. The homeowners must pay an up-front fee of “several thousand dollars”. After the company has the money, they don’t fulfill their duty and leave the homeowners without the little money they had left.
Tags: housing; finances; mortgage; real estate; property; People's First; Better Business Bureau; assistance
-
Loan Mods
Homeowners whose mortgages were securitized by their banks and sold off were blocked from modifying the loans to avoid delinquent payments. Investors in the mortgage securities market believed they had incentive to keep people from refinancing, but the result exacerbated delinquent payments. A $75 billion federal program to reduce foreclosures by allowing consumers to renegotiate loans with banks was often rejected by banks on the grounds of investor disapproval.
Tags: investors; mortgage; foreclosure; securities; securitization; securitizing; loans; banks; federal; modification; refinance;
-
School of Shock
This investigation focuses on the Judge Rotenberg Center, the only school in the country to routinely punish students with electric shocks. This investigative story is the first to reveal what day-to-day life is like in the school. The reporters found that the school's methods are not scientifically just, that students as young as eight or nine are routinely shocked for minor transgressions, and that levels of student violence remain high, though most of the violent behavior is directed to the school's staff.
Tags: education; corporal punishment; mental illness; special education; behavioral modification; abuse; shock therapy
-
Rough Love
Tranquility Bay, a "behavior modification school" in Jamaica, is a boarding school where parents send their troubled teenagers. But what parents get for their $40,000 yearly tuition is often overly harsh discipline that results in the children being injured and abused. The reported conditions include "no running water, beatings by staff, and being forced to lie in silence, face-down on the floor for hours at a time - over a period of several months." At least six other schools which like Tranquility Bay are affiliated with the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools "have been raided and/or closed during the past decade, following allegations of abuse or questionable practices."
Tags: Tranquility Bay; boarding schools; at-risk youths; troubled teens; child abuse; inmate abuse; World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools
-
Where There's Smoke
Forbes investigates the increasing number of Whirlpool dishwashers who "have overheated or burst into flames, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage. . . Despite Whirlpool's 1996 recall of 500,000 units produced in 1991-92 and design modifications made by the company in 1992-93, the fires continue." Despite the allegations, Whirlpool continues to hold true that its products are safe.
Tags: Whirlpool; Consumer Product Safety Commission; consumer safety; dishwashers
-
No title (id: 4101)
WGN-TV (Chicago) finds that five top city officials have immediate family members working for contractors who did business with the city; the report cited city officials who signed contract modifications submitted by their own sons, Feb. 19 - 24, 1986.
Tags: None
-
Patient Dies after water therapy
Kansas City Star investigates policies that led to death-by-therapy for a retarded patient at a Missouri state mental hospital; she died after being forced to drink mass quantities of water, an unauthorized behavior-modification technique aimed at curing her of her compulsion to drink water, September - October 1979.
Tags: mental health; death; Missouri; therapy; behavior-modification