The Marshall Project and The New York Times

How New York’s Abusive Guards Keep Their Jobs

Joseph Neff, Alysia Santo, Tom Meagher, Ilica Mahajan

The Marshall Project examined more than 12 years of employee discipline data from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and hundreds of prisoner lawsuits — records that revealed that 90% of the time, the state discipline system fails to hold guards accountable for attacking the people in their custody. The news outlets’ investigation “exemplifies in-depth reporting and holding power to account,” a judge wrote. “The severe abuse and institutional failures detailed within such a powerful state system backed up by extensive documentation and sourcing made it stand above the rest.”

Read the Winning Work

In New York Prisons, Guards Who Brutalize Prisoners Rarely Get Fired

How a ‘Blue Wall’ Inside New York State Prisons Protects Abusive Guards

‘A Crazy System’: How Arbitration Returns Abusive Guards to New York Prisons

How We Investigated Abuse by Prison Guards in New York

How We Investigated Abusive Prison Guards Getting Their Jobs Back in New York

New York Prison Employee Discipline Data

Bill Would Change How New York Disciplines Abusive Prison Guards