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 "jail violence" ...
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"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
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I Lit the Fire: Jared Petrovich Admits His Role in the Killing of John Chamberlain. But why did he target the gay?
These four articles probed the culture of violence at tTheo Lacy Men's Jail in Orange, CA, beginning with an exclusive interview of Jared Petrovich, the accuse ringleader of the Oct. 5, 2006 murder of John Chamberlain, an inmate suspected of child molestation who was brutally beated inside the jail. That story included combined interviews with Petrovich and other inmates and guards at the facility with transcripts and notes of interviews with inmates and guards that the reporter obtained from lawyers representing inmates, including Petrovich, who were charged in the attack. The article contained allegations that Deputy Kevin Taylor, a prison guard who was never charged in the crime, told Petrovich that Chamberlain was a child molester, and that Taylor routinely use inmates like Petrovich to enforce prison rules and mete out punishment to various inmates. Petrovich provided an example of this behavior that I did not include in my original story, alleging that Taylor had known about--and approved--a previous beating of an inmate in Sept. 2006. He only knew the inmate's first name--Mark--but claimed the inmate had been a guitarist for the rock band Kiss. He claimed another inmate, nicknamed "Sick Dog" had witnessed Taylor being informed of the planned attack and, after it was carried out, rewarding the inmates with sack lunches. Through a California Public Records Act request, the reporter obtained the Sheriff Department's jail file on the beaten inmate, Mark Leslie Norton, aka Mark St. John of the rock band Kiss, and found information which corroborated Petrovich's account of the incident, and obtained his death certificate. St. John died of a brain hemorrhage several months after being released.
Tags: prison beatings; rock band Kiss; California; prisoner brutality; bribe; prison regulation
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Sheriff Lee Baca & L.A. City Jails
"These stories provide a penetrating look at conditions inside the nation's largest county jail system and show how the violence within cannot be contained. With the jails seriously overcrowded by felony defendants awaiting trial, 150,000 less serious offenders have been released since 2002 after serving fractions of their sentences."
Tags: Castaic; violence; riots; fights; correctional facility; inmate
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Nuestra Familia, Our Family
An investigative documentary film about the prison gang's in California and the effect they have on Latino families. Interviews inside prison and with family members outside explain haunting lifestyle that emerges from gang life. The documentary focuses on a father who turns his life around, while his son's involvement in the Nuestra Family gang becomes deeper.
Tags: gangs; prison; jail; organized crime; violence; latino; hispanic
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Locked Down: Gangs in the Supermax
The documentary investigates the links between criminal groups based in prisons and street gangs, showing how California's harsh prison policies have contributed to the growth of gangs.
Tags: crime; violence; gangs; California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; prison; jail
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"Uncertain Innocence: What Convicted Sue Reser"
This story is about the conviction of Pamela Sue Reser. She was sentenced to life in prison for sexual violence against her own children. After spending 3 1/2 years in prison, her kids recanted the testimony that put her in prison. An order by the judge set her free, and the charges were dismissed a month later. Her kids alleged that their adoptive mother's brother had done the molesting. He had brainwashed the kids into believing Reser had sexually abused them. The charges against their uncle were dismissed.
Tags: Coffee Creek Correctional Facility; Oregon Court of Appeals; polygraph; Yamhill County Jail; exoneration; Yamhill County; sexual abuse; incarceration; sexual violence.
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Debt to Society: The Real Price of Prisons
A Mother Jones interactive project chronicles and quantifies "the explosive growth of America's inmate population." The online series depicts the economic and social costs of prisons, and includes a database on states' prison population and prison spending. The first part explains why America became the world's leading jailer, and looks at the paradoxical growth of the incarceration rate over the past decades when the crime rate was declining. The reporters find that "the soaring number of nonviolent drug offenders" and increases in sentencing are behind the expansion of prisons. The second part discovers that "prisons are rife with infectious illnesses - and threaten to spread them to the public." The third story examines the influence of jail sentences on inmates' inclination to violence after being released. The fourth part looks at the social costs for children who have a parent behind bars. The fifth article explains various alternatives for society to respond to lawbreakers without locking them up. The sixth part reveals that spending on a domestic anti-drug war is ineffective. The seventh article finds that "mass incarceration comes at a moral cost to every American."
Tags: corrections; law enforcement; crime; racial disparity; arrests; the Twin Towers Correctional Facility; rape; HIV; mental health; AIDS; families; drugs; courts; judges; CAR; database mapping project
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How California Failed Kevin Evans
The Los Angeles Times Magazine investigates the death of Kevin Evans, a mentally ill African-American who died of alleged cardiac arrest in Twin Towers' jail, "the largest mental-health housing facility in the nation." The story reveals that Evans' medical records have been falsified, and that he was subject to violence by the hospital staff before his death occurred. The article reports on the wrongful death claims submitted by Evans' sisters and the resulting $600,000 award in settlement. A major finding is that L.A. county has provided no safety net for mentally-ill homeless people, who "at least for the present, are the responsibility of the sheriff." The reporter also looks at the "acute problems" that have persisted in Twin Towers for many years.
Tags: police abuse; violence; African-American; blacks; poverty; minorities; race; crime; hospitals; nurses; inmates; prisons
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Roaming Rikers
Jennifer Gonnerman reports on Rikers Island, "home to 80 percent of its 14,600 or so inmates, with nine jails for men and one for women." The in-depth article details life in these jails and illustrates the difference between men and women behind bars. In addition, the article provides insight into punishment, discipline structure and morale in this multi-million dollar jail system through interviews with wardens, commissioners and inmates. Gonnerman also examines issues including violence, gangs, suicide, pregnancy and retention.
Tags: prisons; prisoners; guards; crime; suicide; police; wardens; pregnancy; gangs; weapons; defense
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Dead reckoning
Westword reports that "When Michael Furlong's wife, Deanna, tried to get him to sign divorce papers, she ended up dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Prosecutors discovered that 10 years ago, another young woman who'd attempted to break up with Furlong in another Colorado town had also disappeared; her body had been found in a dump some months later. But because the forensic evidence was weak, they were unable to connect the two deaths or to convict Furlong of anything stronger than criminally negligent homicide. After two years on work release in Boulder County Jail, Furlong will be free to love again. This case illustrates both the lack of aggressiveness of the Boulder County District Attorney's office (known nationwide for its inability to come up with a change in the JonBenet Ramsey case) and the difficulties of prosecuting domestic violence."