Silver Gavel Awards for Media and The Arts
American Bar Association
1997 Silver Gavel Award Winners: Newspapers
1997 WINNERS | NEWSPAPERS | BOOKS | TELEVISION | RADIO | FILMS & VIDEOS
The System
The Clarion-Ledger
Jackson, Mississippi
Breakdown Behind Bars:
Turbulent Times in L.A. County Jails
The Los Angeles Times
The System |
"The System," a four-day series that ran October
13-16, 1996, resulted from a four-month investigation by The Clarion-Ledger into
the criminal justice system in Hinds County, Mississippi--"a system bogged down by
crowded court dockets and staggering caseloads." A computer-assisted analysis by the
newspaper, for instance, found that, on average, 419 days elapsed between arrest and
disposition of a case in the county. The series featured reports combining analysis of the
system with case studies, background pieces presenting innovative models and offering
context for understanding the Hinds County system. Full-page graphics illustrated how the
system is supposed to work and impediments to its efficient functioning. Guest columns
from key participants, letters from readers, and daily editorials defined the scope of the
problem and exhorting cooperation and reform. Contributors included acting metro editor
Deborah Skipper; reporters Beverly Pettigrew Kraft, Butch John and Jerry Mitchell; art
director Godfrey Jones; photographer Rick Guy; editorial page director David Hampton; and
publisher Duane McCallister. While the series explored the frustrations of both local
officials and citizens, it also found that some progress was being made. In these cases,
it documented the successes and hard work of those involved, and gave valuable suggestions
about how to improve the system.
- Availability: $6.00 for 4 issues, contact Susan Garcia, Librarian, The
Clarion-Ledger at 601/961-7071.
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COMMITTEE COMMENTARY
The Clarion-Ledger offered an even-handed look at the numerous and varied problems that result from an overburdened criminal justice system. "The System" was especially readable and comprehensive, with fine illustrative graphics. It humanized the issues the community faced by presenting viewpoints from all of the actors involved--victims and their families, defendants, police, public officials, judges, lawyers, and members of the public. The series highlighted the ways in which each piece of "the system" is dependent upon the others.
E X C E R P T S F R O M T H E S Y S T E M
OUR VIEWS
There are solutions to the problem
Today, The Clarion-Ledger begins a series of reports on the Hinds County
criminal justice system, an in-depth examination of how well law enforcement agencies and
the courts deal with criminals. The reports attempt to pick apart the system and see where
the problems lie. The reports show that justice is delayed.... There is an overall
problem, too, in this belief that there is this big, undefined complex and unmanageable
"system." It is a mindset that keeps the citizens of Hinds County and its
officials continually frustrated and confused, blaming each other and boxing at shadows.
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Every part must work for the whole
If there is one thing clear from The Clarion-Ledger's examination of the Hinds
County criminal justice system, it is that for "the system" to work, each part
of the system must work and work well. That is not happening.... During this series of
reports, the central feeling expressed has been frustration--from police to prosecutors to
defense attorneys to victims to citizens. There is a feeling that the problems are too
complex and overwhelming. They are not.... Despite problems, there have been some positive
developments during the past year. Law enforcement agencies are working together more than
in the past, prosecutors and judges have made changes to better organize and deal with the
staggering caseloads.... When all is said and done, a community has the crime level it is
willing to tolerate.... There must also be more community involvement at every level...
Voters must also take their role more seriously.... The system is not working. And, it
won't work until the parts become a whole.
Breakdown Behind Bars: Turbulent Times in
L.A. County Jails |
"Breakdown Behind Bars" was a six-part Los Angeles Times series on
overcrowding and waste in the L.A. county jail system and mismanagement within the
sheriff's department. The newspaper's yearlong investigative effort combined street
reporting with computer analysis, public record requests and litigation to produce three
interrelated sets of articles. Contributors included assistant city editor Paul Feldman;
staff writers David Ferrell, Erich Lichtblau, Josh Meyer, and Ralph Frammolino; and metro
projects editor Joel Sappell. The first stories included an inside account of life within
L.A's racially-divided county jails. They also explored the dangers in assigning
inexperienced deputies to years of "custody duty" before ever letting them go
out on the streets. The second set of stories examined the spending practices of the
sheriff's department and the political climate that permitted the sheriff to avoid
oversight of his operation. These stories reported millions of dollars in possible waste,
at a time when the sheriff had recently closed four jails and claimed his department
lacked the funds to open a new 4,100-bed, $373 million jail. The final stories depicted a
work-release program that was releasing thousands of serious offenders back into society,
with little or no checks into their criminal histories. "Breakdown Behind Bars"
led to reforms in the system, including the opening of the newly built jail, an audit of
the sheriff's department, and a revamping of the work-release program.
- Availability: through Times on Demand at 1-800-788-8804, $11.00 per reprint; or
click link above for online information.
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COMMITTEE COMMENTARY
This exceptionally well written series of articles addresses an issue of broad public interest. The series, dramatically presented, resulted from a great investigative effort. Requiring research and synthesis of an incredible amount of data, "Breakdown Behind Bars" highlighted problems that cried out for change, raised public awareness, and prompted reforms.
E X C E R P T S F R O M B R E A K D O W N
B E H I N D B A R S
Hell might be this: A place where all the racial hatreds, gang wars and law enforcement problems of an entire metropolis are squeezed down into a single bastardized society so hard and twisted it defies reason. Los Angeles funnels thousands of its worst, from hundreds of gangland neighborhoods, into the sprawling Pitchess Detention Center in the rugged foothills of Castaic. There are killers and crack dealers, carjackers and small-time thieves, and untold numbers of innocent men--all prisoners in a madhouse, struggling for power and survival in loud, overcrowded jail dormitories never meant to house dangerous felons.
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The burgeoning early release crisis has its roots in court edicts beginning in the 1970s that capped the County Jail population when chronic overcrowding collided with constitutional obligations requiring humane treatment of prisoners. It is now on the brink of disaster because of the sheriff's financially driven shutdown of the four jails and the state's "three strikes" law, which has discouraged plea bargains and kept more high-stakes felony suspects in jail awaiting trial.
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The nation's most massive jail system has a new and potentially troubling class of inmate, serving longer sentences than anyone else: the deputies of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. There was a time when the agency's rookies spent only their first 18 months guarding the county jails. No more. Today, new deputies are being stuck on custody duty for five, six, even seven years.... But there's more at stake than employee morale. Some people inside and outside the Sheriff's Department fear that the resentments born of years in the custody division are producing a "culture of violence" among young deputies--making them more abusive in the jail and more hardened toward the communities they eventually will patrol.
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