Ill Punishment
Reporter Michele Gillen of WFOR-TV CBS4 News in Miami took a penetrating look last week at conditions for mentally ill inmates, many of them charged with minor crimes, at the Miami-Dade County pre-trial detention center. Her "Forgotten Floor" investigation shows conditions so crowded that five people sometimes must share a cell with one steel bed and inmates are held in shower stalls because there is nowhere to put them. In one unforgettable scene, inmates are reduced to drinking toilet water because the taps don't work. The "Forgotten Floor" Web package includes Part 1 and Part 2 of the broadcast report, a written version of the investigation and photos. Throughout the package, the writing is powerful, the reporting revealing and the video compelling. At the end of Part 2, Gillen and the CBS4 anchors urge listeners to contact local politicians and make treatment of the mentally ill an issue in the November elections. It's a rare example of advocacy by a reporter in the mainstream media. Do you think it's right?
Thank you to the Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins for the tip.