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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Where Hope is Locked Away: California's Youth Prisons. A Mercury News Special Report.
This series examines California's failing youth prison system. The state pledged that all youth would receive counseling and rehabilitative treatment, but it seems like the system is too flawed to keep those promises. Now, tear gas, gang violence, and fear are much more common than progress. The reporters specifically focused on five issues: education, treatment, sentencing, parole and alternatives. They compare the California system to better ones in Texas and Missouri.
Tags: Youth Authority; juvenile delinquents; abuse; sex offenders; therapy; mental health; rehabilitation; drugs
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Behind the Prop
California's Proposition 36 aims to help drug offenders out of prison, saving the taxpayers millions. But as Stephen James uncovers, the goal of this plan isn't necessarily fulfilled. Proposition 36, also known as the Substance Abues and Crime Prevention Act of 2000 (SACPA), received great praise from its sponsor, the Drug Policy Alliance, who said that the plan would save California taxpayers $1.5 billion over five years. But James discovers that the law just may be a very expensive failure. SACPA allows for criminal offenders convicted of nonviolent drug possession to be sentenced to drug teatment instead of probation without treatment or jail time. James found that only about 10 percent of SACPA defendants actually complete the entire program.
Tags: Proposition 36; drug offenders; incarceration costs; inmate drug treatment; SACPA; Substance Abuses and Crime Prevention Act of 2000
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War Without Victory
This series describes the facets of the war on drugs in Washington state, particularly areas that seemed too "small town" to have any drug problems. It involves a vivid description of the drug war in Snohomish County, the effects of drugs on newborn babies who carry on their mothers' addiction, how some drug offenders never spend a single day in jail, and also a study of how the legal system handles drug cases.
Tags: drug war; Washington; cocaine babies; drug-fighting agencies; Snohomish County
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Patients in Peril
This investigation showed how the Virginia Board of Medicine allowed more than 250 doctors - including sex offenders, tax evaders, felons, drug dealers and a convicted murderer -- to hold medical licenses, despite records of grave errors and or misconduct.
Tags: FOIA; National Practitioner Data Bank; medical malpractice; Department of Health Professions; child abuse; child molestation; physicians; pediatrics; pediatrician
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Prescription for Pain
The stories demonstrated that Eastern Kentucky led the nation in the distribution of prescription narcotics-much of it illegal. Reporters found a series of unlikely accomplices to the illegal trafficing including the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Local cops were corrupt or compromised and a $30 million federal enforcement effort was rendered ineffective by a lack of cooperation among the police agencies involved. The reports found an elected judge who admitted that he'd had private business dealings with rug dealers and was unilaterally lowering drug offenders' sentences set by plea bargains. The reporters also found that effecive drug treatment was hard to find in rural areas of Kentucky. The newspaper also produced an examination of how OxyContin was marketed through "detailing," the practice of sending sales men directly into doctor's offices. The reporting also took readers inside one local drug ring. Finally, the newspaper examined how public Medicaid payments were providing some rural Kentucy drug dealsers with millions of silent partners-U.S. taxpayers- who were helping to ensure their supply.
Tags: prescription narcotis; illegal trafficking; federal Drug Enforcement Administration; OxyContin; painkillers; FBI; methanphetamine; taxpayers; medicaid; substance abuse; rural Kentucky; Social Security Administrationn; drug traffickers; drug abuse; lortab; tylox; xanax; cocaine; marijuana; Lee County Sheriff's Department; Beattyville; Beattyville Police; Operation Grinch; Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program; HIDTA; Kentucky State Police; Office of National Drug Control Policy
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An investigation into race and crime
A Toronto Star investigation finds that police officers have treated unfairly and unequally black offenders in traffic and drug cases. The findings are based on Toronto police department arrest data, which also shows violent crime appears to be a bigger problem among blacks than whites.
Tags: race; FOI; racial profiling; law enforcement; police misconduct; human rights
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Who's driving the bus?
WITI found that because of a gaping hole in state law, murderers, sex offenders, drug dealers, and other convicted felons are legally driving Wisconsin school buses.
Tags: Department of Transportation; Wisconsin Supreme Court; bus drivers; criminal background; Milwaukee Public Schools; TAPE; TV; TRANSCRIPT; CAR
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The Drug War Series
The series focused on the execution and impact of the so-called drug war on Chicago's minority communities. Specifically, the stories examined racial disparities in drug sentencing, drug arrests and the number of ex-drug offenders returning to Chicago communities. The Chicago Reporter found that blacks and Latinos were more often sentenced to prison than whites for the same drug crimes, even when they appeared to have similar criminal pasts.
Tags: drugs; drug war; drug crimes; drug sentencing; minority communities; racial disparities; drug arrests; drug cases; drug market; ex-drug offenders; drug activity; drug dealing; crime statistics; Chicago police Department; Illinois Department of Corrections; Cook County
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Juvenile justice investigative report
Citizen-Times reports on flaws of the North Carolina juvenile prisons. The investigation concentrates on the Swannanoa Valley Youth Development Center in Asheville, N.C. The stories reveal sexual and physical abuse, neglect, staffing and maintenance problems.
Tags: violence; substance abuse; drugs; teenagers; offenders; children; safety
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Is locking 'em up the answer?
Washington Monthly examines the value of incarceration for nonviolent criminals, especially drug offenders.
Tags: violent criminals; prison; incarceration; incarceration rates; drug offenders; drug offenses