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 "rights of prisoners" ...
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Grandma can’t accept your call: Inmates disconnected by phone costs
This series of stories started with a simple question. Why does it cost so much for inmates to make calls from the Cook County Jail? In the course of my reporting on criminal and legal affairs for WBEZ, the public radio station in Chicago, I had heard numerous people complain about the high cost of phone calls. Some digging confirmed that the price could be as high as $15.00 for 15 minute calls. Three or four calls a week at that price gets expensive even for financially stable middle class folks, but the people paying these fees were mostly the poorest residents in Chicago. That’s because most of the people in the Cook County Jail are there because they and their families couldn’t afford to post bond of a couple thousand, or sometimes even just hundreds of dollars to secure their freedom while awaiting trial. They are the people who are least able to afford such expensive phone calls. A few FOIA requests revealed the scheme (and scheme is the right word… I just looked it up: a crafty or secret plan of action). Cook County gave an exclusive phone contract to a company called Securus Technologies. Securus charged inflated phone rates and their exclusive deal in the jail meant inmates wanting to talk to their families or arrange their defense had no choice but to pay the rates. Securus then paid back to the county 57½ percent of the revenue from the calls. It netted the county about $4 million a year. Securus wouldn’t tell us their take but I imagine they did alright too. All of the money was coming out of the pockets of the poorest residents in Cook County, people who couldn’t even afford to post bond for their freedom. (As an aside, this isn’t just an issue in Cook County. According to its website Securus provides the phone systems for 850,000 inmates in 2,200 jails and prisons across the country.) Our reporting shed public light on a hugely profitable contract that no one was paying attention to. We documented the lives of the impoverished people getting hammered by the policy and then turned the hammer on the local elected officials to ask them to explain how this was a good policy. The public officials responded in a way that once again proved the genius of democracy. Our efforts and the results are detailed in subsequent answers below.
Tags: prison inmates; phone calls; fees
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A Damaged District
For more than a year, Zahira Torres overcame obstacle after obstacle to document one of the worst school cheating scandals in the nation's history. Where other cheating scandals involved altering accountability tests, the El Paso Independent School District gamed the state and federal accountability systems by targeting Mexican immigrant students. In a number of cases, district officials refused to enroll students or pushed out students already enrolled -- denying countless students their constitutional right to an education. In other cases, they arbitrarily reclassified grade levels or altered transcripts, all in an attempt to keep students out of the testing pool. Torres' reporting sparked numerous results. The superintendent who masterminded the scheme went to federal prison. The state education agency removed the school board. And when Torres' reporting documented that the state was aware of details of the cheating in 2010 and cleared the district anyway, the new education commissioner ordered an independent investigation of how the agency missed the cheating.
Tags: schools; scandals; education; school board
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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
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The Texas
Mentally disabled residents of a school in Texas were forced to be a part of a “fight club” run at night. The brutality of this was highly disturbing and it terrified these residents. Many of them tried to leave, but the staff members continuously forced them back and continued the abuse. Since all this information was revealed, these former staff members have been found guilty of felony charges of injury to the mentally ill and face time in prison.
Tags: mental health care; system; Texas State School; Corpus Christi; brawl; battle; struggle; state government; state facilities; civil rights
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Brian Ross Investigates: Bodies: The China Connection
The investigation uncovered black market trade that supplies bodies of Chinese executed prisoners for display in Premiere Exhibitions' for-profit "Bodies" show in cities around the world. The shows have been seen by millions and has brought huge profits to the Atlanta-based company.
Tags: China; inmate rights; black market; body factory; skeleton; plastinate; body parts
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Adolfo's Story
Adolfo Davis has been in jail since the age of fourteen, sentence to life in prison without parole for murder. In Illinois, it's legal to question a fourteen-year-old without the presence of a defense attorney so long as a youth officer is present, and the child is made aware of his rights.
Tags: accountability; murder; drug territory; parole; probation officer; testimony; sentencing
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Prisons' Legal Strain
Eight class-action lawsuits won by inmates rights lawyers have led to the state of California mandating "fixes for past failures that have already cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and will cost nearly $8 billion over five years." Included in that bill are improvements in the ways prisoners are treated, like health care and "general confinement conditions." An outbreak of Valley Fever at one prison is included in the coverage of these issues. One of the ways the state seeks to balance the prison budget is a plan to release 22,000 "low-risk offenders" early.
Tags: Prisons; health care; medical conditions; confinement conditions; prison health care; Valley Fever
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Prisoners Best Friend
Reporters Todd Bensman and Robert Riggs from CBS-11 News, Dallas, investigated tips that State Representative Terri Hodge solicited campaign contributions from inmates families in return for intervening in their loved ones' cases. Not all those campaign contributions were reported. Bensman and Riggs found over 60 instances where Rep. Hodge obtained confidential prison files under a legislative privilege designed to assist in law-making. "As a legislator, Hodge served on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and frequently sat in on hearings before the COrrections COmmittee, which oversees the Texas Prison system. In her role, Hodge had power over budgets and prison jobs."
Tags: Terri Hodge; campaign contributions; parole board; disciplinary refractions; influence; victims rights groups; Texas Public Information Act; Texas Inmate Families Association; TIFA; legislative privilege; campaign finance reports; Texas Criminal Jurisprudence Committee; Texas Department of Criminal Justice; TDCJ; Texas Corrections Committee; Justice for All; Texas Ethics Commission
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Slain Pagan Targeted in Drug Probe; State Police Lose Track of Sex Offenders; Trapped in Despair; White Supremacy in the Internet Age; Delaware's Deadly Prisons; Wilmington's Deadly Streets; Deadly Force; Resisting Arrest
These eight investigations show Williams' commitment to crime reporting. They run the gamut from exploring the neo-Nazi presence on the internet to monitoring how effectively the police track sex offenders.
Tags: religion; paganism; drugs; sex offenders; low-income housing; Section 8 housing; white supremacy; Internet crimes; prisons; civil rights violations; police corruption
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Jews in Prison Face Special Challenges
The article took an in-depth look at the challenges facing Jewish inmates in Missouri prisons. The author covered all stages of incarceration, challenges on the inside and the challenge of re-integrating into society as a whole and the Jewish community in particular.
Tags: Missouri prisons; religion; Judaism; Jewish inmates; re-integration; incarceration; rights of prisoners; drug abuse; substance abuse; community outreach