Project or Series: Over 200,000 circulation

This highly readable and thoroughly reported series deftly exposes waste, mismanagement and abuse within a $10 billion federal program. The reporter found faces and figures to support anecdotal claims that the Supplemental Security Income program had, as she writes, “gone seriously astray, becoming an alternative welfare system with troubling built-in incentives that risk harm to children.” Dogged reporting reveals that parents are willing to label their children “disabled,” despite its limiting nature, as long as the diagnosis came with a paycheck; that SSI workers blindly pay benefits years after a childhood diagnosis; and teens are motivated to continue the cycle because their families can’t afford to lose the benefit. Her reporting led to an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

USA Today spent eight months investigating the impact of industrial pollution on the air outside schools and its toxic effect on children. The project deserves top recognition for its commitment to a demanding, nationwide investigation as well as its exemplary use of database and computer-assisted reporting. The team used the government’s own database and research and then mobilized their own resources to gather comprehensive data on air quality to analyze exposure and toxicity. The project is a prime example of both public service journalism and classic investigative reporting.

This series on the poultry industry pulls the curtain back on many hidden issues: worker safety, industrial food production, immigration violations and lax government oversight. The Observer’s team spent 22 months analyzing government safety data, reviewing thousands of pages of documents and interviewing more than 200 poultry workers, many of whom were undocumented workers and afraid to speak out. By holding the powerful accountable, The Charlotte Observer’s enterprising investigation shows why strong local newspapers are so vital.

In this effective series, the Inquirer thoroughly documented the Philadelphia Department of Human Service’s callous neglect of abused children it was charged with protecting. When officials refused to provide information on many cases, the reporters combed neighborhoods to give the stories scope and depth. Response was significant: Moved by the children’s stories and nailed by the hard-nosed reporting, state legislators toughened laws and city officials had no choice option but to clean house at the agency.

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.