Every year, Georgia’s Division of Children and Family Services (DFCS) authorizes drug tests for thousands of parents who are under investigation for child mistreatment or are seeking to reunify with their children in the foster care system. The system is set up to protect children and allow institutions to evaluate whether Georgia parents are on […]

Teenagers in North Carolina’s juvenile justice system are routinely being locked alone in their rooms for as much as 23 to 24 hours a day, according to an ongoing federal lawsuit and advocates for young people in custody, despite state officials’ own acknowledgment of research showing that prolonged isolation causes mental and physical harm. “Sometimes it makes […]

“Seized and Sold” – The Concord Monitor’s investigation of how some localities across the state aggressively seize homes of persons who fall behind on property taxes.  This story is part of a continuing series by Michaela Towfighi, a Report for America reporter with the Concord Monitor. The project is a collaboration between Report for America and Investigative Editing […]

California has set carbon-neutrality goals for 2045 in a move away from fossil fuels to combat global warming. Kern County, where oil and gas production is a key industry, is at the epicenter of this transition’s push and pull. KVPR News’ Joshua Yeager and Inside Climate News’ Emma Foehringer Merchant are tracking the developments in the changing […]

With 19 in-custody deaths in 2022, Riverside County experienced the deadliest year in a decade in the county’s jails. The spike in deaths happened as the jails grappled with a national fentanyl crisis and a burgeoning mental health population. The deaths gave the jail the third highest death rate among large California counties in 2022. Of the 16 coroner’s […]

Top: Judge David Paris runs the Sagadahoc County Probate Court without a permanent courtroom. Paris wasn’t even provided a robe, his wife ordered him a set online. He holds hearings in the county commissioners’ room, grand jury room or even the lunchroom. Still, he says, he runs his court like any other judge and as […]

To encourage more investigative reporting in local newsrooms and to help local reporters hone those skills, Report for America is partnering with Investigative Editing Corps to oversee up to 10 projects over the next two years in its host newsrooms. Today, the organizations are announcing the first five newsroom partners, which were selected among newsrooms that applied […]

Top photo credit:  Fred Field Jailed defendants have a legal right to privately speak with their attorneys. Yet, in Maine, county jails are eavesdropping on these calls. Four jails recorded nearly 1,000 attorney-client calls in a single year and shared recordings with police and prosecutors before trial, a Maine Monitor investigation has found. Often defense […]

A Superfund site in Grand Prairie, Texas, has been on the EPA’s national priority list since 2018. It’s located in the predominantly Latino and low-income neighborhood of Burbank Gardens. EPA tests found a highly toxic chemical in the soil at the site, in nearby groundwater and in the air inside some residents’ homes. Now, EPA […]