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 "drug offenders" ...
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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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R.C.'s Boys
The story investigates the case of former NC state Senator R.C. Soles, showing that Soles sexually assulted numerous young men, and then paid them to keep their silence. The reporters found that the abuse had a profound effect on the lives of the teens, who grew into troubled adults and often turned to drugs and alcohol to ease the pain.
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Sex offender, other felons ran camps for homeless kids
This investigation "found that Palm Beach County officials paid a convicted child molester, drug dealers, thieves and other people with criminal records nearly half a million dollars in public money to run summer camps for homeless, foster and impoverished children during the past three years."
Tags: child safety; sex offender; criminal records; child care; criminal background; camp; child welfare
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Scales of Justice
Many known criminals in Linn County walk the streets freely. Among many problems with the local justice system, the largest is that criminal cases are dismissed without prosecution. Without charges on a drug dealer's, child pornographer's, or girlfriend beater's records, it's as if they never committed a crime. The lack of corrective action is leaving local police with low morale and an overwhelming job of arresting repeat offenders only to see the justice system release them back on the public.
Tags: justice system; police; prosecution; charges; arrests; morale; criminals; streets; Linn County; CBS 2; attorney; public safety;
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Collision Course
The Times explores a broken legal system in Louisiana that allows DWI offenders to get off on minimal charges which ultimately resulted in the death of 15-year-old Adam Klingensmith at the wheel of a repeat DWI offender.
Tags: Louisiana; intoxicated; influence; alcohol; drugs; legal; death; Jimmy Ray White; Adam Klingensmith; convictions; lesser charge; police; jail time; reduced; arrests; judges; ineffective; drugs;
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Carnival Safety Investigation
Inside Edition sent a producer with hidden cameras to work at several traveling carnivals around the country where he uncovered major drug use by some of the carnival ride operators. In addition to capturing "ride jockeys" abusing (and dealing) drugs just minutes before they began operating major thrill rides popular with children and young adults, our producer also observed several serious safety issues inherent in the traveling carnival industry. Among these safety issues were questionable hiring practices, inadequate training policies and dangerous mechanical issues on multiple rides.
Tags: carnival safety; public safety; ride jockeys; drug use; sex offenders; ex-con; traveling carnivals;
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Locking up criminals locks in rising costs
The paper examined the state's philosophy on being tough on crime but in a time of economic downturn, it may be better to increase the use of less costly probation for nonviolent offenders.
Tags: incarceration; drug problem; sentencing; imprisonment rate; computer-assisted analysis; treatment;
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Head Games
Alan Pendergast, staffwriter for Denver's Westword reports that in 2004, 20% of Colorado's jail population was diagnosed with severe mental illness, and "the true number may be much higher, since some inmates' illnesses are never properly diagnosed." The story compares cost of psychiatric lock-up versus community mental health care. Pendergast advises other journalists doing similar stories should "insist that someone in the accontable chain of command review and comment on the records, even if the actual treatment providers are refusing to be interviewed."
Tags: prison mental illness; correctional systems; lockdown; supermax prison; ADHD; Department of Corrections; forensic psychiatry; head cases; administrative segregation; HIPPA; San Carlos Correctional Facility; Offenders WIth Serious Mental Illness; OSMI; National Institute on Drug Abuse; Mental Health Occupations Grievance Board
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Is Esmie Evil
In August 2005, Esmie Tseng was arrested for the stabbing death of her mother. Due to evidence at the scene indicating that the crime may have occurred in multiple sections of the house the 16-year-old Esmie lived in with her parents, the Johnson County, Kansas prosecutor tried Esmie as an adult. The local community's outpouring of compassion for Esmie as "a good girl who had snapped under pressure from her harsh parents" is only part of the story as the writer delves into Esmie's unhappy life, her diaries at Livejournal.com and Xanga.com and her "use of illegal drugs such as ecstacy (which) might have contributed to Esmie's faltering mental stability in the days leading up to her mother's murder." Esmie Tsang is now serving eight years after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
Tags: Esmie Tsang; juvenile offenders; patricide; ecstacy; Livejournal.com; Xanga.com
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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