IRE Radio Podcast | Wards of Neglect
What happens when a state cuts $100 million from its mental health budget? Reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune spent 18 months finding out. Their Pulitzer-winning investigation exposed deadly violence in Florida’s mental hospitals, where staff shortages, regulatory fumbling and years of neglect were, for years, hidden from the public eye. In today’s episode, we hear from Anthony Cormier and Leonora LaPeter Anton, two of the reporters who helped spur reform in the broken mental health system.
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EPISODE NOTES
Looking for links to the stories, resources and events we discussed on this week’s podcast? We’ve collected them for you.
- Read the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune story “Insane. Invisible. In danger.”
- Watch the surveillance videos reporters gathered from Florida’s mental hospitals.
- Members only: Learn more about how the papers reported this story by downloading and reading an IRE Awards questionnaire (file 27226_Q.pdf).
CREDITS
Brett Murphy produced this episode. IRE Web Editor Sarah Hutchins edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.
MUSIC
Denzel Sprak (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
One Quiet Conversation (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Between Stones (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
City Limits (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0