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 "inmates" ...
-
Deaf and Tased
A deaf crime victim calls police for help, but instead gets tased, beat-up, and thrown in jail for 60 hours over Easter weekend without access to an interpreter. KIRO 7’s investigative team proves police manipulated their reports to defend their actions. We also uncovered jail guards offered the deaf inmate a broken TTY phone as her only means of communication. We found that device still broken and in service two months later.
-
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
-
What Happened to Edie?
Edwina King's death was ruled a suicide by the very law enforcement agents she was investigating, regarding allegations that women in the Delaware County Jail were being raped and sexually abused. Edwina went missing the very day she was supposed to meet a Tulsa attorney to discuss a possible civil rights lawsuit on behalf of female inmates. Two weeks later, her body was found hanged in a horse tack barn on her own property, not more than 200 miles from her trailer home.
Tags: Suicide; Edwina King; Tulsa World; Trailer Home; Rape; Sexual Abuse
-
What Violent Criminals Could Be Paroled
The North Carolina Department of Correction had many of inmates facing life sentences set to be paroled with the public unaware while the governor and attorney general attempted to keep these men from walking out the front door.
Tags: prison; murders; North Carolina
-
Cracked
Fetlz's investigation "exposes how junk science has allowed Texas to keep mentally retarded inmates on death row - and execute several of them - despite a 2002 Supreme Court decision, Atkins v. Virginia, that bans such punishment for these defendants.
Tags: capital punishment; criminal justice; mental retardation; death row; execution; Texas; Atkins v. Virginia
-
Bad Detective
In Orange County, incarcerated defendants representing themselves in court had no choice but to hire one well-connected private investigator who mostly just pressured them to take deals offered by prosecutors. In at least one case, the investigator blackmailed an inmate to accept a plea deal.
Tags: courts; private investigator; blackmail; plea bargain; law enforcement
-
Secret early release of Illinois prisoners
The series finds that the Illinois state government had secretly released 1,700 inmates from prison early in an attempt to save money and reduce overcrowding. Many of those released had committed violent crimes or been convicted of driving under the influence.
Tags: prison; state prison; criminals; meritorious good time; Department of Corrections
-
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
-
"Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America"
In this book, author Anne-Marie Cusac reveals how America has become a nation of victims searching for revenge, rather that a "community that cares for its own." The cultural shift has impacted the criminal justice system, causing even "law-abiding" citizens at risk of "suffering retribution in American jails." The book illustrates how cultural trends have "transformed" America into a "society of punishment."
Tags: prison; jail; punishment; inmates; capital punishment; punitive physical pain; corporal punishment; Abu Ghraib; Guantanamo
-
"Prison Predator"
Overcrowding in California's 33 prisons has led to inmate violence, death and an alarming lack of accountability among prisons workers. In the past year, Lancaster state prison has seen two deaths as a result of inmate violence. In both cases, officials have keep quiet. A federal court ruling has asked California prison officials to relieve the overcrowding by releasing 40,000 inmates, though the ruling has been met by resistance by the governor and other politicians.
Tags: Lancaster; California prisons; inmate violence; jail violence; Greg Thomas; Cayenne Byrd; California Department of Corrections