Project or Series: Over 200,000 circulation
2010 Casey Medals
Winner: "For Their Own Good," St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times
By chronicling decades of rape, starvation and the hog-tying of students, the six-part series exposes Florida’s oldest reform school for what it really is: a medieval-style prison for children, still open for business today, still funded by the state of Florida. The St. Petersburg Times weaves storytelling and hard facts to paint a haunting picture of the childhoods lost in the swamps, with stories and images that remain with the reader. Meticulous reporting, unflinching photographs, uncensored language and scores of documents create a victory for generations of victims whose lives have been wrecked by the abuse and whose voices had gone unheard.
Runner-Up: "Clout Goes to College," Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune reveals the dark side of special treatment in this series on the stunning abuses of power wielded by officials at the University of Illinois, the state’s premier public university. The blow-by-blow account of a well-entrenched, secret admissions system reads like a court case, complete with damning e-mail exchanges and statistics. The investigation, which led to a slew of dismissals, will likely help bring opportunities to thousands of students and their families.
Honorable Mention: "Dubious Medicine," Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune courageously challenges doctors who peddle alternative autism remedies to parents desperate for help. Through inquisitive, fact-based reporting, the series exposes the flimsy science behind the anecdotal testimonials that underpin uncontrolled experimentation on children.
2009 Casey Medals
Winner: "The Smokestack Effect: Toxic air and America’s schools," USA Today
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.
Winner: "The Cruelest Cuts: The human cost of bringing poultry to your table," The Charlotte Observer
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.
Honorable Mention: "Chemical Fallout," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was one of the first to take on the issue of chemicals in consumer products. The series set off a frenzy of legislative activity around Biphenyl A and other chemicals used in plastic baby products. Eventually, it led to a ban on BPA in some states and restrictions on another class of chemicals, known as phthalates.
2008 Casey Medals
Winner: "Hidden Hazards," Chicago Tribune
This series features very aggressive gumshoe reporting on the serious problems for children posed by unsafe products – and on the woeful inadequacy of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This is journalism at its best – a reporter following a hunch that leads down one hell of a highway. Everything is here: great writing, poignant human stories, document trails, revelations of malfeasance and public service. The fallout will be felt for years, and children will undoubtedly be a lot safer.
Winner: "The Match," Newsday
This project shed a great deal of light on the science and ethics behind a challenging procedure: when parents create a baby who can become a medical donor for a gravely ill sibling. The articles and the accompanying photographs take readers on a powerful voyage into a very personal corner of one family’s life, with far-reaching implications. Gaining the trust of this family was a remarkable feat – and led to remarkable journalism.
2007 Casey Medals
Winner: "Bury Your Mistakes," The Philidelphia Inquirer
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.
Runner-Up: "Yolanda's Crossing," The Dallas Morning News
Artfully written and filled with rich details, the project gives a clear picture of sexual violence experienced by one young woman and speaks for others whose stories remain in the shadows.
Honorable Mention: "Guards Seen Beating Teen in Video," The Miami Herald
Beyond their dogged coverage of breaking news – the discovery of a video documenting a teen’s fatal beating in detention – the Herald reporters dug into the deeper story of an abusive system and helped bring about its demise.
2006 Casey Medals
Winner: "Early Exit: Denver's Graduation Gap," Rocky Mountain News (Denver)
This enlightening, comprehensive package may be the most precise and nuanced statistical portrait of dropouts that has yet been done in a big-city school system. The articles effectively illuminate some of the economic and cultural factors buffeting individual choices, while continually emphasizing what is at stake: the future of flawed, complex, promising kids.
Runner-Up: "Maryland's Troubled Group Homes," The Baltimore Sun
This investigation of group homes was thoroughly reported, clearly written and its findings were cause for outrage. It also spurred reforms and set the stage for better protection of vulnerable young people.
Honorable Mention: "On Their Own," The Baltimore Sun
Remarkable storytelling demonstrating sensitivity toward and insight about its two young, homeless subjects, while avoiding sentimentality.
2002 Casey Medals
Winner: "It's a Crime: How Mentally Ill Teens are Trapped in Lockups," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
An outstanding project that documented the ill effects of treating troubled youths as criminals rather than providing them with effective mental health treatment, social skill building and job training. Twedt did a tremendous amount of legwork to open the system and tell the stories of incarcerated youths. He also tells the larger story of what the decline in psychiatric facilities and services means for society. An important piece in the series highlighted a Wisconsin program that makes myriad services available to case managers, letting readers know about successful alternatives for dealing with troubled children.
Runner-Up: "Poisoned Children: The Legacy of Lead," The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)
The Star-Ledger's three-part series peels back layers of a catastrophic, seemingly intractable problem: last year 7,000 children in the state had enough lead in their blood “to impair their ability to think, concentrate and learn.” Another 30,000 may be poisoned but haven't been tested. The newspaper took the time and expended the resources to deliver a minutely detailed 25-year history of foot-dragging, ineptitude and indifference on the part of public officials that has led to a health crisis of mammoth proportions, mostly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Honorable Mention: "Who's Watching the Children?" The Orange County Register
In an important public service, the Register reported infractions and abuses at child-care centers that put thousands of children at risk, some in grave danger.
2001 Casey Medals
Winner: "Murder by Neglect," Detroit Free Press
An in-depth analysis of Michigan's child welfare system written with a compelling narrative and facts uncovered from restricted files. Over six days, Kresnak detailed dangerous flaws in the state's welfare system through the story of Ariana, a 2-year-old child brutally murdered by her parents. Kresnak’s writing is devastatingly straightforward. Thanks to this masterwork of detailed reporting, readers have taken on the cause to change the lives of children in harm's way.
Runner-Up: "The Children's Hour: Child Pornography in Arkansas," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
This series was bravely done, thoroughly reported and completely unsparing of the instinct to flinch at what it tells: that children everywhere are vulnerable to victimization of the worst sort from predators on the Internet.
Runner-Up: Under 12/Under Arrest," St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times
Where statistical treatments of prosecutions of minors are numbing, the faces of these children provoke another response altogether. High-impact journalism, superbly executed.
2000 Casey Medals
Winner: "Kids At Risk: How Day-Care Oversight Fails Our Children," Newsday
A comprehensive and compelling series that ran over nine days, this investigative project is a masterwork of detailed reporting, compelling narrative and in-depth analysis of how weak state laws and regulations allowed children to be harmed in child care facilities. The articles are focused, define the problem and hit the target again and again, leaving no wiggle room and little opportunity for reader apathy. Brian Donovan’s lead stories combine compelling narrative and bulletproof factual analysis. The series was also an important public service, published as demand for inexpensive child care exploded due to welfare work requirements, and as parents from all income levels increasingly searched for out-of-home care. A guide for finding good child care ensured that readers weren’t left feeling helpless, and legislative responses to the series spoke loudly to its impact.
Honorable Mention: "Vulnerable Lives: The Business of Foster Care," The Denver Post
about this award
The Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism recognize exemplary reporting on children and families in the U.S. More than 4,500 journalists have competed for Casey Medals since 1994.