The Society of Professional Journalists named Alabama Public Radio winner of its national Sigma Delta Chi Award. This prestigious honor is for APR’s documentary on prison and justice reform titled “…and justice for all.” The half-hour program is the culmination of the newsroom’s six month effort investigating problems and issues in Alabama’s prison system.
“I am so proud of our Alabama Public Radio news team—but I’m also heartened by the generosity of the listeners who make it all possible,” says Elizabeth Brock, director of the Digital Media Center at the University of Alabama. “Their (listener) support is critical for this kind of in-depth reporting—a brand of journalism that distinguishes public radio as a unique, invaluable source of information.”
News Director Pat Duggins, assistant news director Stan Ingold, Alex AuBuchon, and MacKenzie Bates examined angles including Governor Robert Bentley’s $800 million dollar prison building plan, Alabama’s controversial wrongful incarceration act which is supposed to compensate people imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit (only one person has been paid,) as well as concerns over mental health and medical care for inmates, and what happens after prisoners are released. The team also investigated Alabama’s judicial override law, which allowed judges to overrule a jury’s recommendation of life in prison. The State Legislature ended that policy months after APR’s story aired.
“The deeper we dug into Alabama's prison situation, the worse it appeared,” says Duggins. “The news team and I are flattered to receive this generous honor on this important issue.”
This generous national award is the third Sigma Delta Chi for the Alabama Public Radio news team. APR won back-to-back awards in 2012 and 2013, for its breaking news coverage of the tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011, and for a follow-up documentary a year later on how Alabama was recovering from the storms.
The Society of Professional Journalists will present its Sigma Delta Chi awards at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in June.