CONTENTS THE IRE JOURNAL 18 - 19 PRISONS: LIBERATING THE TRUTH TABLE OF CONTENTS INMATE HEALTH CARE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 Officials ignore warning signs; care lacking or too late 4 Graham set standard By Mary Zahn for investigative paper The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel By Brant Houston OUTSIDE EXTORTION Family members forced to 5 NEWS BRIEFS AND MEMBER NEWS pay for inmate safety 6 PHILLY TO HOST By Kathleen Johnston and Gerry Lanosga NATIONAL CAR GATHERING WTHR-TV, Indianapolis By The IRE Journal Staff PRISON BUILDING 8 PLANNING – Projects call for Construction increases as system, shared newsroom input incarceration declines By Bill Sizemore By Dan Meyers The Virginan-Pilot The Denver Post 10 HIGHER EDUCATIONS DEATH ROW DEFENSE Analyzing the financial pressures Indigent inmates on small colleges get poor representation By Dianne Jennings By Jim O’Neill The Dallas Morning News The Philadelphia Inquirer 12 WHISTLEBLOWER HIGH-SECURITY SECRETS Knowing when, where and how to Using grapevine to uncover handle a key source supermax snitch unit By Alan Prendergast By Kate Miller 10 for The IRE Journal Westword 14 BENEVOLENT SCAM 31 FEN-PHEN STORY PROVIDES Solicitation pros mar fundraising GLIMPSE AT HOW DOCTORS, by police, firefighters DRUG MAKERS THINK By David Migoya By Steve Weinberg The Denver Post The IRE Journal 16 EXTENSIVE PUBLIC RECORDS 33 LEGAL CORNER SEARCH LEADS TO PENSION Electronic records threaten FOIA FUND FRAUD STORIES By Stephanie S. Abrutyn By Jack Meyers the Boston Herald ABOUT THE COVER Cell block C at the Powhatan Correctional Center in Powhatan County,Va. Cover story, page 18-19 Cover photo by Bill Tiernan, The Virginian-Pilot Cover design by Wendy Gray, The IRE Journal SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 3 THE IRE JOURNAL FROM THE IRE OFFICES VOLUME 24 NUMBER 5 Graham set standard DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS & EDITOR Len Bruzzese for investigative paper MANAGING EDITOR Anita Bruzzese ART DIRECTOR or many investigative journalists who never personally knew Wendy Gray her, the death of Katharine Graham this past summer was BRANT HOUSTON F a deep loss. SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Steve Weinberg Her fortitude as publisher and CEO of The Washington Post set a standard 30 years ago when she gave the go-ahead to publish the Pentagon Papers and then again backed CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR her newsroom during the Watergate investigation. David Smallman Those two examples alone would make her the godmother of modern investigative EDITORIAL INTERN reporting. But her continued support of digging, hard-hitting stories at The Post Jamie Manfuso encouraged generations of journalists at other news organizations to pursue unpopular, yet critical investigations. Katharine Graham was the example of the courageous journalist as publisher. It IRE doesn’t take long for an editor or reporter to know that some stories won’t see the light of day – no matter how good the stories are – unless a publisher can rebuff the threats of IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Brant Houston the powerful who are under scrutiny. In a time of media consolidations and immense Wall Street pressures on newsrooms, BOARD OF DIRECTORS some friends in journalism have worried that the passing of Katharine Graham is one more sign of the decline of an era of tough, aggressive work. CHAIRMAN But Graham’s legacy is the inspiration she gave – and will continue to give – to James Neff, The Seattle Times investigative journalists to carry on, because she showed that even in the most difficult of PRESIDENT times there will be someone who will go with the story. David Dietz, Bloomberg News On-the-road plans VICE PRESIDENT Shawn McIntosh, The Clarion-Ledger The cuts in newsroom budgets for training and travel have made us more intent than ever on getting IRE’s training and resources to its members and all journalists. TREASURER Thus, we have planned a busy year on the road, often in collaboration with other Joel Kaplan, Syracuse University organizations. You can keep up with additions to the schedule by checking our Web site SECRETARY at www.ire.org/training, but here are some of our plans: Ed Delaney, Barnes and Thornburg • A series of 10 one-day investigative workshops around the country for journalists at Paul Adrian, KDFW-Dallas small to medium news organizations. David Boardman, The Seattle Times • Seminars on computer-assisted reporting at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., James V. Grimaldi, The Washington Post and at the Medill School of Journalism news bureau there. Chris Heinbaugh, WFAA-Dallas • Two-day regional workshops on using census data. Cheryl Phillips, USA Today Duane Pohlman, WEWS-Cleveland • Two-day regional workshops on campaign finance issues at the community level. Stephen Miller, The New York Times • Regional conferences in Washington, D.C., Savannah, Ga., and Charlotte, N.C. Mark Rochester, Newsday • A regional conference with our colleagues in Mexico to be held in Juarez during November. Stuart Watson, WCNC-Charlotte • The IRE National Conference next June in San Francisco • Workshops with state capitol reporters, publishers of African-American community The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is pub- newspapers, education writers and religion writers. lished six times a year by Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. 138 Neff If you are interested in getting a workshop to your area, please contact Ron Nixon, Annex, Missouri School of Journalism, IRE’s training director, at [email protected] or call 573-882-2042. Columbia, MO 65211, 573-882-2042. E-mail: [email protected]. Subscriptions are Keeping up to date $60 in the U.S., $70 for institutions and those outside the U.S. Periodical postage paid At the same time, we continue to build our Web site and publications so that at Columbia, MO. Postmaster: Please send CONTINUED ON PAGE 35 × address changes to IRE. USPS #4516708 Brant Houston is executive director of IRE and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. He can be reached through e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 573-882-2042. 4 THE IRE JOURNAL I R E N E W S Strong member showing New CFIC director MEMBER NEWS in Best of the West named for IRE, NICAR Ten IRE members were among the winners Aron Pilhofer has joined IRE and NICAR as the RE members were on the winning teams of this year’s Best of the West awards. new director of the Campaign Finance Information I in each newspaper category of the 2001 In broadcast, producer Eric Longabardi and Center. Before joining IRE, he was the computer- Gerald Loeb Awards for Business and Finan- reporter Vince Gonzales of KCBS-Los Angeles assisted reporting coordinator for The News Journal took first place in the investigative reporting in Wilmington, Del., where he helped lead the cial Journalism. Mark Katches and Ronald category for their series, “Biowar,” about the paper’s census coverage, among other projects. Campbell of The Orange County Register Prior to that, he covered state politics and the New U.S. Navy using its own sailors in biological were part of the winning team in the large warfare experiments 35 years ago. Jersey Legislature from the Gannett state bureau in Ross McLaughlin, of KIRO-Seattle, had two Trenton. He replaces Ron Nixon, who moved into newspaper category for “The Body Bro- winning investigations. “Odometer Rollbacks” IRE’s training director position. kers.” Jim Leusner of The Orlando Sentinel took top honors in consumer reporting, and MaryJo Sylwester, former IRE and NICAR was part of the team winning the medium “Canada Drugs,” which told how Americans Database Library administrator, has been hired were taking bus trips to Canada for prescription to manage computer-assisted reporting for the newspaper category for “Government Inc.” drugs, won for series reporting. Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. Bruce Rushton of the Riverfront Times In newspapers, Rick Tulsky, of the San She will work with reporters to obtain and analyze (St. Louis) won the small newspaper cat- Jose Mercury News, tied for first place in data for various projects, including The 50 States investigative reporting for his examination of Project, federal investigations and the center’s egory for his report “Porn in the USA.” the U.S. political asylum system. He shared online newsletter. Her primary assignment will be Andy Lehren, Allan Maraynes, Neal first place with David Parrish and Ryan Konig to oversee analysis and reporting of an investigation Shapiro and Mable Chan were on a team of The Arizona Republic, who investigated the of soft money contributions and expenditures by that won the Edward R. Murrow National flawed disciplinary system for doctors. state lawmakers in all 50 states. Kim Christensen and Brent Walth were Latest issue of Tracker Award for network television for “The part of a team at The Oregonian in Portland Paper Chase,” an hour-long newscast that that won first place in explanatory reporting available via the Web revealed a disturbing pattern in State for a series on injustices at the Immigration The latest issue of Tracker, the newsletter for and Naturalization Service. The series won the Campaign Finance Information Center, is Farm’s insurance handling practices. The the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service earlier now available at www.campaignfinance.org/. The same investigation also won a duPont- electronic newsletter contains stories written by in the year. Columbia Silver Baton, a Gerald Loeb Thomas J. Cole, of the Albuquerque Journal, reporters working with campaign finance records. was on a three-person team that won first place They share tips and tactics for tackling these often Award, a Peabody Award, and an IRE Cer- in project reporting for “Betrayal of Trust,” an complex pieces. tificate. David Raziq and Anna Werner This issue includes a story by Jeff South of investigation into substandard care for child of KHOU-TV in Houston won the Edward leukemia patients at the University of New Virginia Commonwealth University explaining Mexico.