The Marshall Undertaking has gained two 2025 Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Tv Digital Information Affiliation within the classes of exhausting information and podcasts.
“We’re honored to be acknowledged with two Edward R. Murrow Awards this yr. These initiatives exemplify our mission: to provide rigorous, impactful journalism that exposes failures within the justice system and informs the general public debate,” stated Geraldine Sealey, appearing Editor-in-Chief of The Marshall Undertaking.
Within the exhausting information class, The Marshall Undertaking and The Frontier had been honored for our joint investigation, “This Firm Promised to Enhance Well being Care in Jails. Dozens of Its Sufferers Have Died.” The reporting examined the speedy enlargement of Oklahoma-based Flip Key Well being Clinics and revealed how its insurance policies and practices endangered sufferers throughout 10 states. The story was reported by The Marshall Undertaking’s Cary Aspinwall, The Frontier’s Brianna Bailey and freelancer Sachi McClendon, and edited by The Marshall Undertaking’s Dave Mann and Leslie Eaton. The venture additionally included information evaluation by The Marshall Undertaking’s Geoff Hing, design and video enhancing from Celina Fang, videography and video enhancing from freelancers Belle Cushing and Cassandra Giraldo, and pictures by freelancer September Daybreak Bottoms.
The protection took greater than a yr of dogged reporting to find out the variety of deaths and to seek out out the explanations behind them. The group reviewed practically 200 lawsuits in opposition to the corporate. Verifying the intense allegations in these fits proved difficult as a result of the corporate had settled a number of circumstances with agreements that prevented plaintiffs and attorneys from talking with us, and plenty of paperwork in courtroom information had been sealed.
Reporters confronted challenges acquiring information in dozens of counties throughout 10 states. Plenty of counties with Flip Key contracts stonewalled our requests for communications, coverage paperwork, contracts and cost information. The reporting group discovered that a minimum of 50 individuals who had been underneath Flip Key’s care died through the previous decade. Our reporting unearthed firm insurance policies and practices which have endangered folks in jail, particularly these with psychological sickness.
The investigation examines a number of of these circumstances, together with an Oklahoma mom and baker, Shannon Hanchett, who ended up in a jail cell after calling 911 throughout a psychological well being disaster. Her household pleaded for her to be despatched to a psychological well being facility as an alternative, however she remained in jail underneath Flip Key’s medical care, till she died.
The Marshall Undertaking additionally obtained a Murrow Award within the podcast class for “The Fifth Department,” produced in collaboration with Tradeoffs, a well being coverage journalism outlet. The three-part narrative podcast collection from Ryan Levi and Dan Gorenstein at Tradeoffs and The Marshall Undertaking — and an accompanying story by Christie Thompson — explores how cities across the nation are creating a brand new era of first responders to deal with 911 calls involving psychological sickness, dependancy or homelessness.
The podcast was reported by Levi, with assist from Marc Maximov. It was combined by Andrew Parrella, with assist from Cedric Wilson. Cate Cahan was the podcast collection editor, and Dan Gorenstein was government editor.
The collection zooms in on Durham, North Carolina’s HEART program, one of the vital sturdy various response packages within the nation. Levi centered on three key points: How do you get buy-in for this type of radical change, particularly from regulation enforcement? Has HEART made Durham safer? And what scope and scale ought to a program like HEART be aiming for?
Our reporting tackled these questions with a mixture of rigorous on-the-ground reporting, information evaluation, and human-focused narrative storytelling. Tradeoffs reporters spent eight months in Durham, using with unarmed groups to emergency calls and speaking with greater than 50 metropolis leaders, social staff, law enforcement officials, 911 dispatchers, activists, enterprise house owners and folks helped by HEART.
There was a wave of reporting on these packages as they popped up throughout the nation. However this collection is among the many first to take a really in-depth take a look at whether or not they are surely on their approach to turning into the revolution in public security they as soon as promised, and what it will take to get there.
These awards from the Radio Tv Digital Information Affiliation acknowledge sturdy native and nationwide information tales that “uphold the RTDNA Code of Ethics, display technical experience and exemplify the significance and impression of journalism as a service to the neighborhood.”
The popularity underscores The Marshall Undertaking’s continued management in prison justice journalism. Based in 2014, the nonprofit newsroom has gained two Pulitzer Prizes, been named a Peabody finalist, and revealed 1000’s of tales in partnership with native and nationwide media retailers throughout the nation.
