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the Journalism Center Announces Winners of the 2004 Casey Medals
June 9, 2004

The Boston Globe’s wrenching profile of a mother who gave up her two sons for adoption; The Oregonian’s incisive look at how massive cuts in mental health services led to the suicide of a 22-year-old woman with schizophrenia; the Los Angeles Times’ stunning photographs of the journey taken by a Honduran boy who slipped into the United States in search of his mother; and an evocative MSNBC documentary about four homeless families were among the winning stories in the 2004 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism contest. Winners will receive a Casey Medal and a $1,000 award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 10.

The journalists who served as contest judges evaluated stories for originality of subject matter, depth of research and documentation, significance of the social issue to children and families, storytelling and creativity in presentation, reporting challenges and impact. They awarded prizes in 13 of the 14 categories; no prize was given for online journalism. The contest drew 265 entries published or broadcast between July 1, 2002, and Dec. 31, 2003. Future Casey Medals will cover work done during a single calendar year. The next deadline is March 1, 2005.

The Journalism Center on Children & Families is a full-service journalism enterprise devoted to deepening the coverage of social issues affecting children and families, particularly the disadvantaged. Since 1993, more than 900 journalists have participated in the center’s intensive training programs. The Journalism Center is a program of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

2004 CASEY MEDALS, JUDGES' CITATIONS

PROJECT/SERIES 200,000+ circulation

Winner: Patricia Wen, The Boston Globe, “Barbara’s Story: A Mother, Her Sons, Her Choice.”

After a brutal rape sent her into depression, Barbara Paul struggled with an already tenuous grip on motherhood. Neither an addict nor an abuser, Paul nonetheless was found by the state of Massachusetts to be an unfit mother. Charges of parental neglect led her two sons, ages 8 and 13, into foster care and then adoptions to which she reluctantly agreed. Wen’s account is carefully detailed and beautifully, sparingly written, illuminating a rarely seen corner of the child welfare system and its effects on a lost family.

Runner-up: Barbara White Stack, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Juvenile Court Journal.” The story of Tangela Smith, a former crack addict desperate to prove that she could be a competent parent, brings the important issues of family court into stark relief.

Honorable mention: Sewell Chan and Scott Higham, The Washington Post, “Homes of Last Resort.” The reporters pried open secret files in this tremendous enterprise project, shaking Washington, D.C.’s youth services agency and prompting reforms.

PROJECT/SERIES 75,000-199,999 circulation

Winner: Eric Eyre and Scott Finn, The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia, “Closing Costs: School Consolidation in West Virginia.”

A decade ago, West Virginia officials pushed through a massive school consolidation plan, resulting in the closing of hundreds of rural schools. Eyre and Finn focus on the overlooked sufferers: children who endure long and arduous bus rides that grossly violate state guidelines. The reporters provide a thorough look at a scandalous situation far below the national radar and, in the best traditions of journalism, give voice to a community’s most vulnerable people.

Runner-up: John Archibald, Jeff Hansen, Carla Crowder, Marie Jones and Patricia Dedrick, The Birmingham News, Alabama, “The Black Belt: Alabama’s Third World.” This ambitious, comprehensive series examines the startling chasm that divides Alabama’s Black Belt – a poverty-stricken region named for its dark, rich soil – from more affluent counties.

Honorable mention (tie): Barbara Walsh, Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, “Castaway Children: Hidden Faces of Poverty.” Walsh uncovers horrific enclaves of poverty in Maine’s rural communities.

Honorable mention (tie): Ruth Teichroeb, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “The Truth Dies with Them.” Teichroeb aggressively reports how Washington’s child homicide rate failed to include some abuse and neglect deaths.

PROJECT/SERIES Under 75,000 circulation

Winner: Jill Tucker, Robert Gammon and Michelle Maitre, Oakland Tribune, California, “Education on the Brink: Separate and Unequal.”

The series offers a disquieting account of how economic and racial segregation contribute to educational inequalities in California’s public schools. A familiar topic comes alive through vivid reporting and shows how differences large and small – from spending on teacher salaries and textbooks to cleanup of graffiti-covered walls – affect students and their education.

Runner-up: Laura Bauer, Springfield News-Leader, Missouri, “The Dominic Files.” Bauer untangles the dysfunction of a child welfare system that left 2-year-old Dominic James in the care of a foster father who fatally abused him.

Honorable mention: Rob Thornberry, Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho, “One in Every Classroom.” The series examines efforts to care for seriously emotionally disturbed children by families, state schools and the mental health system.

SINGLE STORY 200,000+ circulation

Winner: Michelle Roberts, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore., “Life, Interrupted.”

The tragic results of massive funding cuts to Oregon’s mental health system are illustrated in this painful look at the final days of Farrah Russell, a 22-year-old suicide victim who suffered from schizophrenia. The story features incredible reporting on an important topic, buttressed by powerful writing.

Runner-up: Barbara White Stack, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Officials Took Baby in Hospital Without Following Procedures.” Stack exposes a gross violation of civil rights and due process committed by a child welfare agency in the wrongful seizure of two children from their mother. No honorable mention.

SINGLE STORY 75,000-199,999 circulation

Winner: Kathleen Chapman, The Palm Beach Post, Florida, “Saving Isaiah.”

Chapman investigates why an institution run by Florida’s Department of Children and Families had treated an emotionally disturbed 6-year-old as a “psychotic adult.” She examines the hospital’s use of full-body restraints, psychotropic drugs and a quiet room for Isaiah White’s discipline. The harrowing and utterly absorbing account of his barbaric treatment poses hard questions but provides no easy answers.

Runner-up: Michael Coronado, The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif., “Home of Last Resort.” A vividly drawn story of the unseen victims of urban renewal, told through a family that faces losing its home – a room in a rundown motel – to city redevelopment plans.

Honorable mentions: Mary Ellen Flannery, The Palm Beach Post, Florida, “One Year Inside an F School.” Flannery examines the unique challenges facing teachers and students in a low-performing school in one poor community. And, Donna Callea, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Florida, “Child-Care Roulette.” Callea reveals that millions in state school-readiness funds are being funneled to unlicensed or unsafe child-care centers.

SINGLE STORY Under 75,000 circulation

Winner: Veronica Stickney, Grand Junction Free Press, Colorado, “Without a Place to Call Home.”

Stickney profiles Grand Junction’s homeless children – a group rarely in public view – without stigmatizing them. Though the topic is familiar, this article goes beyond statistics with compelling details: the 11-year-old girl doing homework in her mother’s car; a teenage boy sharing a cramped motel room with his mother, two sisters and a kitten; and a family’s steady diet of hot dogs and ramen noodles in a motel kitchen that lacks a stove or refrigerator.

Runner-up: Lisa Rosetta, The Bulletin, Bend, Ore., “The Hidden Victims of Crime.” Rosetta brings great empathy to the stories of children of incarcerated parents and examines community programs designed to help them.

Honorable mention: Carolyn Feibel, Herald News, West Paterson, N.J., “Shadowed Motherhood.” Feibel spent three months following mothers with mental illness to write a textured story about how their problems affect their families.

EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY

Winner: Dante Ramos, The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, “Unlocking the Future: How to Mend the Juvenile Justice System.”

Ramos spent a year reporting and writing editorials that probe Louisiana’s problem-ridden juvenile justice system. He illustrates, by example and also wide-angle reporting, that the state’s policies have been both expensive and ineffective; the prisons are ill-equipped to provide the rehabilitative services these youths so desperately need. His work produced significant reforms in a state where powerful district attorneys and corrections officials had long resisted change.

Runner-up: Mary Engel, Los Angeles Times, “Standing up to Street Gangs.” Engel expertly balances vivid reporting, contextual analysis and well-focused advocacy in calling for an examination of methods to prevent violence among street gangs in Los Angeles. Honorable mention: Louis Freedberg, San Francisco Chronicle, “Reclaiming Childhood.” Freedberg’s persuasive series on advertising in children’s lives provided a roadmap for parent involvement and influenced the California Legislature to ban the sale of sodas in schools.

MAGAZINE

Winner: Edward Humes, Los Angeles Magazine, “The Unwanted.”

Written with care and restraint, Humes’ story skillfully depicts the problems besetting MacLaren Children’s Center for abused and neglected children. Through interviews with wards and workers, and solid historical reporting, he explains in distressing detail how the center became a dumping ground for children it was not prepared to handle, and the focus of public outrage when the inevitable tragedy struck. The center’s rules seem to have been written with a goal of failure; Humes details the absurdity.

Runner-up: Skip Hollandsworth, Texas Monthly, “Their Last Good Chance to Get Better.” This touching and revealing portrait of a mentally ill young man illustrates how the lack of early mental health treatment for adolescents costs the state millions later on, as their problems become more acute. Honorable mention: Tracie McMillan, City Limits, New York City, “Market Babies.” McMillan vividly illuminates a consequence of welfare reform that won’t be seen for years: a market-driven, government-sanctioned (but poorly supervised) supply of home-based child-care providers.

NONDAILY

Winner: Laura Bond, Westword, Denver, “Nowhere Boy.”

The story chronicles the struggle of an adoptive family to obtain mental health services for their severely emotionally troubled son. It touches on funding of the mental-health system, high-risk adoption and the various mental disorders and conditions linked to fetal alcohol syndrome. It’s a compelling subject done nicely.

No runner-up.

Honorable mention: Emily Gurnon, North Coast Journal, Arcata, Calif., “Worlds of Pain: Why So Many Humboldt Kids Can’t Get Dental Care.” Gurnon’s story is an alarming look at one community’s desperate need for dental care, and the needless suffering of low-income children.

PHOTOJOURNALISM

Winner: Don Bartletti, Los Angeles Times, “Enrique’s Journey.”

During the three months he spent retracing the path of a Honduran boy, Bartletti accumulated a striking compilation of photographs depicting the perils of an estimated 48,000 children who enter the United States from Central America and Mexico each year. The series offers a close look at what children must face to get a piece of the American dream. Barletti’s photographs are excellent – some nice moments, beautiful light.  

Runner-up: Dale Omori, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, “Children Left Behind.” Omori’s photographs illustrate the problems of the city’s impoverished children through compelling narrative imagery. Honorable mention: Rodney White, The Des Moines Register, Iowa, “Our Homeless Children.” White gained the trust of four homeless youths to capture powerful moments in their lives.  

TELEVISION: SHORT FORM

Winner: Don Dare and George Mitchell, WATE-TV, Knoxville, Tenn., “Safe Housing – Denied!”

WATE-TV investigates conditions at a mobile home community where mostly Mexican families are subjected to substandard and unsafe living conditions. This crusading story of how slumlords are protected by legal loopholes reveals the limits of government protection for those in privately owned housing. This poignant story raises a timely social issue.

Runner-up: Bruce Mildwurf and Mike Corry, WPMI-TV, Mobile, Ala., “The Crusade Continues.” Through the touching stories about Nick Dupree and Patrick Morris, WPMI furthers its investigation of Alabama Medicaid rules that require disabled young adults to leave home-based care and enter nursing homes at age 21. No honorable mention.

TELEVISION: LONG FORM

Winner: Bonnie Strauss, Scott Hooker and Rasha Drachkovitch, MSNBC, “No Place Like Home.”

In an evocative and sensitive documentary, the producers allow homeless people to tell their own stories without the intrusion of a narrator. The producers didn’t settle for partial access to a homeless shelter, didn’t set up sit-down interviews and didn’t shoot for the moment. This is television at its best, John Steinbeck with a video camera. 

Runner-up: Rhonda McBride and Phil Walczak, KTUU-TV, Anchorage, Alaska, “Wrangell Institute: Legacy of Shame.” This chilling examination of abuse of Native American children at an Alaskan boarding school in the mid-20th century is exceptional enterprise journalism. No honorable mention.

RADIO

Winner: Michelle Trudeau, Peggy Mears, Jane Greenhalgh and Anne Gudenkauf, NPR, “The Judge and the Scientist: A Therapeutic Approach to Child Custody.”

A deftly told story of a Florida juvenile court that considers research on the emotional needs of very young children in decisions affecting troubled families. Through excerpts of courtroom proceedings rarely made public, the report invites the listener’s interest and empathy without violating family privacy.

Runner-up: Czerina Patel, Marianne McCune, Karen Michel, WNYC/New York, “Radio Rookies: Stories from Midwood and Lower East Side.”Mentored by radio professionals, these teens report on their lives in stories rich in detail and full of interesting characters.

Honorable mention: Andrea Bernstein and Amy Eddings, WNYC/New York, “Handshake Hotels.” These compelling and comprehensive stories expose New York City’s expensive and informal arrangement to house the city’s homeless in private hotels.

JUDGES

The judges for this year’s awards were: Susan Biddle, staff photographer, The Washington Post; Ira Chinoy, visiting professor, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; Mark Feldstein, associate professor, The George Washington University; David Firestone, deputy metropolitan editor, The New York Times; Sara Fritz, freelance writer; Karen Grau, executive producer, Calamari Productions; Claudia Hampston Daly, executive producer, Claudia Hampston Daly Productions; LynNell Hancock, assistant professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Chris Harvey, lecturer, Philip Merrill College of Journalism; Ann Hulbert, author, “Raising America: Experts, Parents and a Century of Advice About Children”; Robert Jamieson, metro columnist, Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Elizabeth Kastor, editor on leave, The Washington Post; Kyrie O’Connor, deputy managing editor of features, Houston Chronicle; Jill Olmsted, associate professor, American University; Steve Padilla, deputy metro editor, Los Angeles Times; Paul Raeburn, author, “Acquainted with The Night: A Parent’s Quest to Understand Depression and Bipolar Disorder in His Children”; Delaina Renfro, reporter, KWCH Channel 12 News; Chet Rhodes, deputy multimedia editor, WashPost.com; Joe Rodriguez, photojournalist; Robin Stone, author, “No Secrets, No Lies: How Black Families Can Heal From Sexual Abuse”; Lillian Swanson, project manager, APME NewsTrain; Kevin Swift, adjunct faculty, Philip Merrill College of Journalism; Bill Turque, assistant Maryland editor, The Washington Post; Steve Weinberg, professor of journalism, University of Missouri; Marjorie Williams, columnist, The Washington Post and contributing editor, Vanity Fair.