IRE Annual Conference 2019 Prepared by: Michele Deitch, Keri Blakinger,

Benjamin Conarck, Conrad Wilson

TIPSHEET

“COVERING PRISONS”

I. PERSUADE YOUR EDITORS TO LET YOU COVER PRISONS/JAILS

● ​Because prisons are so rarely covered, there are plenty of opportunities for
groundbreaking stories that no one else is covering.
● ​There are other angles in, such as how loved ones and family members also suffer
financially from incarceration.
● ​Hot issues: deaths in custody; suicide/mental health; medical care/neglect; staffing
issues; inmate abuse; financial incentives

II. ROUTINE REQUESTS FOR DOCUMENTS AND DATA

If you cover a prison system - or any government entity, really - there are regular reports
generated, and you should probably be asking for them every month. Don’t know what monthly
or quarterly reports your prison system pulls together? Ask someone in the union. Oftentimes
union officials want this same data for their own lobbying purposes. Also super knowledgeable?
Former spokespeople.

Examples of reports and data you should review on a regular basis include:

● ​Deaths in custody data

● ​Prison industry audits
● ​Staffing level/employee turnover reports
● ​Lethal injection supply logs, purchase receipts, lab testing
● ​Reports on use of ad seg/solitary confinement/restrictive housing
● ​Many correctional facilities generate some type of monthly report on the number of
assaults, deaths, major disturbances, etc. (often called “incident reports”). Texas law now
requires aggregated reports of serious incidents in jails to be reported to the Texas
Commission on Jail Standards. No one is digging into this new resource yet--could be a
treasure trove of data!
 ● ​Aggregated monthly/quarterly grievance reports to see what issues are generating
complaints
● ​Employee rosters, including race, rank, hire date, gender
● ​List of all employees who left the agency, rank, reason, voluntary/involuntary
● ​List of numbers for state-issued cell phones for top officials in the agency. (You probably
won’t get this, but always fun to try.)
● ​Financial revenue streams (explained in further detail below)
Tipsheet for Covering Prisons Page 2

A few tips on gathering deaths in custody data:

❖ ​Jails and prisons fill out forms called CJ-9 documents that are sent to the federal Bureau
of Justice Statistics (BJS). Many are done on an annual basis, so late January/early February
is a great time to request them. There are CJ-9 as well as a CJ-9A forms that each
facility/system fills out for the Department of Justice. These are documents that can help
standardize an investigation across jurisdictions and states. The CJ-9A is an annual look at
the facility. The CJ-9 is for a specific person who died in custody.

❖ ​BJS argues it has an exemption from Congress to not provide these documents under
FOIA (long story). But the state prisons/local jails produce the information in the forms and,
from experience, most are willing to hand them over. In fact, since they’ve already produced
the information for the federal government, many are pretty stoked to just deal with your
records request by providing forms they’ve already created.

❖ ​These forms are the basis for most of BJS’s work on prisons and jails. By following their
methodology you can often advance reporting at a significantly more local level than
anything the federal government will produce. BJS is extremely behind in its work, so there’s
also an opportunity to do more in-depth local work years before the Justice Department will
ever weigh in. You’ll also have the ability to put your findings in a historical context, and can
contrast data for jails vs. prisons.

❖ ​Check lawsuits to corroborate the forms. Some jails will do everything they can to not
have to fill out CJ-9 forms.

❖ ​In some states (including Texas), deaths in custody data is reported to a central
repository such as the Attorney General’s Office and you can look there for the data.
Texas also has the Texas Justice Initiative’s database, which compiles all deaths in
custody data (for prisons, jails, juvenile facilities, and law enforcement) and puts it in an
easily searchable spreadsheet format.
III. DIGGING INTO A STORY

You find something in the routine data or you get a lead that piques your interest. Now what?

Requesting Records

Here are some things to ask for:

● ​Policies and procedures relevant to your issue

● ​Video recordings
● ​Logs (e.g., supervision checks; maintenance logs)
● ​Personnel records (including disciplinary records)
Tipsheet for Covering Prisons Page 3

● ​Incident reports (serious incidents such as use of force, deaths, assaults, riots, escapes,
etc. will result in a report generated by the facility)
● ​Aggregated data (e.g., monthly or quarterly grievance reports)
● ​Staffing records, overtime records (can also find out if a particular officer was on duty at
the time misconduct was alleged)
● ​Inmate information (movement, disciplinary history, job and housing assignments)

★ ​When to be skeptical of official records: ALWAYS! Public records are great at

shedding light on a situation, but can also be misleading. E.g., Logs can be falsified
(be skeptical of any log that shows an officer conducting checks at exactly the same
time each hour, or where the entries look like they were all filled in at the end of a
shift). Deaths in custody might not all be reported due to loopholes, such as when the
agency releases someone on the brink of death to avoid reporting their death.
Definitions change and suddenly the numbers change.

★ ​Also think about outside entities that may have records or relevant information:
--check lawsuits that have been filed (PACER) --state Attorney General’s office
may maintain deaths in custody data or detailed filings, as in Texas. In Florida,
the medical examiner’s office often tracks this data. --state comptroller will often
have employee data --independent ombudsman/OIG will have records of incident
investigations
Interpreting Data

● ​Ask questions, questions and more questions. Even if you think you know what a piece of
data includes, confirm. Even the most straightforward-looking data can have surprises
● ​Remember, one year is not a trend. Ask for 5 to 10 years of data when you’re making
data requests.
● ​Always ask if data collection practices--including definitions of terms--have changed over
the time period you’re asking for (e.g., suicide attempts spiked five years ago in Texas
prisons; when asked about the increase, the prison system said it was because in that year
they started classifying more things as attempts).
● ​Keep in mind other concurrent factors that may be influencing these data trends

Follow the money

● ​Request all revenue-generating contracts from your state prison system. These can be
canteens, multimedia tablets, telephone calling, vending machines, and other services. The
contracts will detail what “commissions” the Department of Corrections is making on each
contract (e.g. 50 cents for every bank transfer). You can then request data on the
Tipsheet for Covering Prisons Page 4

revenue generated by these commissions, using that to find out what money the prison
system is bringing in and how it is spending those funds.

Communicating with Inmates by Phone or Mail

● ​Almost everything is recorded. Be mindful of that in how you phrase your questions
when you talk to an inmate.
● ​Letters you write can be confiscated in a cell search and utilized not just by the prison
system, but by prosecutors. This is especially relevant in death row cases with pending
litigation.
● ​Attorney can be helpful in accessing some inmates. Attorney calls are not recorded, so it is
a way to keep a lower profile. In certain cases, for example some immigration cases, working
with an attorney to talk with a person in custody or a detainee can be the only way to access
them. There are obvious drawbacks to this approach.
● ​Don’t use J-pay (email system) for sensitive details.
● ​Media can usually send privileged letters to inmates if the envelope has the outlet’s logo.
 “Privileged” means it won’t be read (in theory), but it can be checked for physical contraband.
But sometimes you won’t want to call attention to your communications, so you might want to
use blank envelopes instead. Always tell an inmate that you will follow-up to be sure a
communication was received.
● ​Be aware that your interest in a particular inmate could put that person at risk for
retaliation by an officer or another inmate. So be sensitive to how blatantly you are
communicating with them.

Communicating with Staff

● ​Remember that the interests of staff are not necessarily adverse to the interests of
prisoners. Many of them want to talk and share similar concerns to inmates when it
comes to safety, physical conditions, understaffing, etc.
● ​Be mindful of terminology when you’re speaking to staff; many officers dislike the term
guard and prefer “correctional officer.”

Other Stakeholders

● ​People who did time previously are one of the best resources for understanding what
really goes on behind the walls. They’re accessible in ways currently incarcerated people
are not and they can explain the gaps between policy and reality.

● ​Prisoners’ families can be good resources, but they also know most of their information
second-hand or third-hand, and stories often have a way of getting embellished either
intentionally or unintentionally.
Tipsheet for Covering Prisons Page 5

Visiting the Facility for Inmate Interviews

● ​Find reporters who’ve already been there and talk to them first to find out the best way to
go about it. In some cases, it’s not practical to go in as official media - a la Rikers Island - and
you’ll likely just go in as a regular friend/family visit.
● ​Assume that you cannot bring your phone or a camera. Sometimes you can get special
permission, but usually you cannot.
● ​Ask in advance what supplies you can bring, down to the type of writing implements that
are permissible.
● ​Ask the spokesperson how the visiting rooms are set up. Will you be talking and
 photographing through glass? Will you be speaking through mesh wire? Or just sitting at a
table?
● ​Discreetly figure out whether your interview is likely to be recorded. If you’re talking
through phones with glass between you and the prisoner, there’s a good chance it’s
recorded.
● ​Women: don’t wear underwire bras.
● ​If YOU have a felony/misdemeanor conviction or are on probation, notify the
spokesperson up front as it could potentially require additional approval.

IV. DEALING WITH AGENCY PUSHBACK

● ​Find out who the agency you are covering answers to, and foster a relationship with them.
Maybe it’s the legislature, or the sheriff, or a prison board or a particular lawmaker whose
committee they report to.
● ​Sometimes the denial is the story - either because the reason given is noteworthy (i.e, the
thing you want to know about is “under investigation”) or because the fact of denying such a
basic request indicates an egregious lack of transparency that’s newsworthy on its own.
NOTE: If you’re writing a story about how egregiously non-transparent an agency is being
because they denied a request, ​make sure ​you know records law really well or have
confirmed with a lawyer that it is in fact egregious on the part of the agency and just a bad
law.

V. OTHER TIPS

● ​Be aware of national, state, and local standards that may be applicable to the issues you
are covering--e.g., statutory minimum standards (will vary by state); American Correctional
Association (ACA) Standards; Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Standards; American Bar
Association (ABA) Treatment of Prisoners Standards. Even if they are not mandatory
standards, they are a good indication of best practices.
Tipsheet for Covering Prisons Page 6

● ​Know whether the correctional agency you are covering is subjected to formal oversight
by an external entity. Most agencies are not subject to oversight, unfortunately. If they are,
however, you have a good source of information, usually in the form of written reports that
are either publicly available or available by request.

VI. HAVING AN IMPACT

You may not see an immediate impact of your stories in the form of changed policies or action
taken against an individual wrongdoer, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t having an impact.
Here’s what you are accomplishing:

➔ ​You are increasing the transparency of closed institutions ​➔ ​You are increasing public
awareness of critical issues and humanizing a population of
individuals that is often demonized by the public ​➔ ​You are alerting legislators and other
policy-makers to problems in the facilities that they
need to address ​➔ ​You are making it much harder for agency officials to claim ignorance in
lawsuits about
these problems, thus limiting their lack of liability ​➔ ​You are letting prisoners know
that someone is watching out for their concerns ​➔ ​You are helping change the
culture of correctional facilities by shaking up the
perceptions of corrections officers and administrators who may not realize that certain
behaviors or conditions are seen by outsiders as abnormal. ​➔ ​You are helping spread
awareness of positive programs, services, and behaviors so that
they can be replicated in other places. ​➔ ​YOU ARE PROVIDING A VALUABLE FORM
OF CORRECTIONAL OVERSIGHT​.

Prepared by:

Michele Deitch, Senior Lecturer, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of
Texas at Austin (Michele.Deitch@austin.utexas.edu)

Keri Blakinger, Houston Chronicle (keri.blakinger@chron.com; @keribla)

Benjamin Conarck, Florida Times-Union (bconarck@jacksonville.com; @conarck)

Conrad Wilson, Oregon Public Broadcasting (conrad.wilson@gmail.com; @conradjwilson)