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 "treatment programs" ...
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Wage Theft In the Fields
American farmworkers have often experienced egregious abuses, but nothing is more pervasive, nor harder to ferret out, than the wage theft that results from a practice called farm-labor contracting. Found in the fields of every handpicked crop in the country, farm-labor contractors not only provide growers with crews, but also handle wages and manage everything from verifying immigration status to providing workers' compensation. The problem is, the contractors systematically underpay the workers. “Farm labor contractors,” says writer Tracie McMillan, “give American produce growers what companies like China's Foxconn offer to Apple: a way to outsource a costly and complicated part of the business, often saving money in the process and creating a firewall between the brand and the working conditions under which its products are made.” And yet McMillan — a fellow with both the Knight-Wallace program at University of Michigan, and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University — found that enforcement is rare: In 2008, inspectors visited only 1,499 of the more than 2 million farms nationwide; in 2011, California inspectors found just seven minimum wage violations on the state’s 86,000 farms. Fines are minimal: “It's cheaper to violate the law than to follow the law,” says one farmworker advocate. And wage theft is tedious to prove, requiring inspectors to interview workers, analyze time cards, and collect payroll records. That's why workers and their advocates in California are counting on a lawsuit brought earlier this year on behalf of two farmworkers against the contractors who hired them—as well as the growers who outsourced the work. The suit alleges that the contractors routinely undercounted the hours worked, failed to pay minimum wage or overtime, failed to provide safe or sanitary working conditions, and housed the workers in unsafe and unsanitary living quarters. The “collective action” suit—open to anyone who can prove he or she experienced the same treatment—may cover thousands of workers and deliver awards substantial enough to deter other employers from the same practices.
Tags: Labor; farms; working conditions; wage
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Failure to Inform
“Doctors at dialysis clinics have failed to inform thousands of patients about kidney transplantation, an oversight that could shorten their lives and cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year”. Many patients start dialysis without hearing the benefits of a kidney transplant. The benefits being about 10 years put on your life and saving the federal Medicare program “thousands of dollars a patient”. This series uncovered money plays a large role when prescribing patients on dialysis rather than getting a transplant.
Tags: medicine; health care; medical; costs; kidney disease; taxpayers; debilitating; insurance; treatments
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Hoover High School Investigation
These stories revealed "academic, financial and moral impropriety related to the Hoover High School football program." Hoover High School has a nationally ranked football program. However, this investigation exposed grade changes and preferential academic treatment for players.
Tags: high school athletics; football; coaches; education; cheating; students
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Sexually Violent Predators
The Sacramento Bee investigates as a decade after the state of California adopted the nation's toughest laws regarding sexually violent predators, enforcement has fallen short of expectations. Those deemed to have the highest risk of being repeat offenders "were sent to Atascadero State Mental Hospital following their prison terms." But of 54 molesters released from the mental hospital, "none had gone through the full treatment regimen designed for them" and worse, "more than two-thirds underwent no treatment at all." In addition, "those who refused treatment had been released to society with fewer restrictions and less monitoring than the four who had completed the five-stage program."
Tags: Atascadero State Mental Hospital; California sex-offender laws; sexual predators; child molesters
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Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program
Author Stephen Grey investigates the "CIA covert rendition program," whish is the transfer of suspected terrorists into foreign custody. He discusses the program's history, how it operates and the North Carolina airline involved. He and others were able to look into the treatment of terror suspects, and through interview Grey found out the interviewees' belief that many prisoners might be tortured as a result of the program.
Tags: CIA; terror suspects; Sept. 11. 2001; Air America; CIA covert rendition program; Bush Administration
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Suffering Together
A New Times investigation discovered that physical and psychological abuse of children was common at Growing Together, a drug treatment center for adolescents in Lake Worth, Florida. The facility was founded as an offshoot of Straight Inc., which shuttered in 1993 following a state investigation that discovered political influence kept the program in operation despite findings of child abuse. Through public records, New Times found that children were systematically neglected, humiliated, and abused, and forced into subduing other kids at Growing Together.
Tags: drug treatment centers; drug treatment centers for children; child abuse; adolescent drug rehabilitation; Growing Together; Straight Inc.
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We Did Nothng Wrong: Why Software Quality Matters
"Software programs are killing people." At the National Cancer Institute in Panama City, five cancer patients died after an overdose of radiation during their treatments. The U.S.-made software that calculated the dosages of these treatments doubled the dosages during treatment of 27 patients. The International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation of the five deaths blamed radiation poisoning, and said that the remaining patients would be at risk for developing "serious complications" from the radiation. Two of the Panamanian technicians were convicted of second-degree murder and are serving four-year sentences in a Panama prison. And the makers of the software, Multidata Systems International in St. Louis, Missouri, deny any wrongdoing.
Tags: Multidata Systems International; software quality; National Cancer Institute in Panama City; radiation therapy; radiation poisoning; software error-prevention system
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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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Armed and Dangerous
WKMG found the State of Florida issuing concealed weapons permits to people who were prohibited by Federal and state law from even possessing guns because they were involuntarily committed by judges to mental institutions or drug-and-alcohol-treatment centers. The politically potent National Rifle Association and its allies have stifled any discussion in Florida about using public records to check on the mental health of the gun buyers. They claim the information is private, but this investigation shows how easily it could be done--if wanted to. This tape also looks at cases of mentally ill patients who have walked into public places like churches and opened fire to kill people.
Tags: TAPE; gun; National Rifle Association; NRA; mental; Florida; weapon; concealed weapon; permit; judge; mental institution; drug treatment; alcohol treatment; public records; mental health; gun buyer; privacy; concealed weapon permit; drug and alcohol treatment; psychotic disorder; concealed weapon permit holder; concealed weapon permit program; US Marshall Service; kill; concealed firearm; scheme; mental health record; health record; Florida legislature; gun control law; mentally ill; killing
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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