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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.