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 "imprisonment" ...
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Indentured Students
In a year-long series, Bloomberg detailed how the $1 trillion in outstanding student loans has imprisoned borrowers in a lifetime of debt, enabling a host of predatory collections practices, misleading financial-aid offers and out-of-control college spending -- while politicians for decades ignored mounting danger signals.
Tags: Student loans; debts; financial aids; college expenses; politicians
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Locked up
A USA TODAY investigation found that the U.S. Justice Department was using its legal authority to decide who gets locked up for how long in ways that reward the guilty and punish the innocent. Our examination found that government lawyers were trying to keep dozens of men who they conceded were “legally innocent” imprisoned anyway. We found that the Justice Department had kept accused sexual predators locked up for years past the end of their prison sentences on the basis of faulty psychological assessments. And exposed a brazen pay-to-snitch enterprise that illustrated how the government rewards its informants — often hardened criminals — with shorter prison sentences.
Tags: U.S. Justice Department; lawyers; sexual predators; criminals; prison sentences
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Wired for Repression
Bloomberg's series "Wired for Repression" revealed the extent to which Western companies have sold surveillance systems to authoritarian countries, including Iran, Syria, Bahrain and Tunisia, which have used them to track, imprison, torture and kill. The newest newest artillery for reprssive regimes, the gear allows authorities to intercept their citizens' e-mails and text messages, monitor Internet activity and locate political targets through cell phone technology.
Tags: torture; surveillance; imprisonment; censorship
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The High Costs of Wrongful Convictions
A seven-month investigation by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions reveals the wrongful convictions of 85 men and women for violent crimes in Illinois has cost taxpayers more than $214 million, and imprisoned innocent people for more than 900 years. Meanwhile, the real perpetrators committed nearly 100 felonies.
Tags: Better Government Association; Center on Wrongful Convictions
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Freed Without the Possibility of Life
A man, who was wrongly imprisoned, was freed from prison after a DNA test revealed he wasn’t the murderer. Though, he was freed the murder conviction has never been cleared from his record. This makes him unable to get a job and live a normal life. The prosecutor and the court can legally choose to never clear his name because it is not a legal requirement.
Tags: David Scott; sentence; jail; law enforcement; arrest; Vigo County; Indiana State Police; case; evidence
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The Prosecution of Governor Siegelman
Seven U.S. Attorneys were fired in December 2006 by the Bush Justice Department not because of poor performance, but because of the refusal to engage in politically-driven prosecutions. Former Governor of Alabama Don Siegelman was convicted of bribery and sentence to serve seven years in jail.
Tags: President George W. Bush; Circuit Court of Appeals; imprisonment; allegation; Grant Woods;
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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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Guantanamo: Beyond the Law
After the release of many detainees at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, reporters at McClatchy set out to track down as many freed prisoners as possible to see what had become of them. Who were the men imprisoned in this facility? Why were they detained? How had they been treated? This series explores these questions and found out a majority of the prisoners were there based on faulty evidence or testimony. They were not even involved in the terrorist attacks.
Tags: Guantanamo Bay; justice; innocent; terrorism; torture of prisoners; Afghanistan;
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D.C. Government Investigations
The Legal Times series looks into the social and criminal justice problems in Washington. Some included findings that the U.S. Attorney's Office hid details about suspect drug buys by an informant during a major sting operation. Other atricles discuss the suicides of two mentally ill patients in a D.C. jail, and imprisonment of local inmated past their release dates.
Tags: group homes; retarded; handicapped; dry cleaner; Thomas Fitsum Alemayehu; Alicia Edwards; police; Melonie Nelson;
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Silent Injustice
Through analyzing "thousands of pages of documents" and interviewing "dozens of people," 60 Minutes and the Washington Post found that "there were hundreds of defendants imprisoned, who were convicted with the help of now-discredited forensic tool... The FBI never notified them, their lawyers or the courts that their cases may have been affected by faulty testimony."
Tags: bullet lead analysis; forensic science; evidence; FBI; courts; chemical signatures; bullets; ammunition;