Help Fund Real Justice Reporting

If you've ever been frustrated with sensationalized crime coverage in the U.S., good news is on the way. Today's ever-changing media landscape is just the backdrop that's needed to shake up the way reporters cover crime, courts and prison.

Change.org readers have played a role in this revolution -- for example, by funding a great ongoing reporting project at California public radio station KALW, digging into the day-to-day operation of Oakland's busy court system.

The series was funded through Spot.us, which is leading the way in developing crowdfunded journalism. Thanks to donations from readers and a matching grant from the Harnisch Foundation, KALW sent reporter Rina Palta into Oakland's courts for two weeks in November to launch her own investigation into the system. She uncovered fascinating stories big and small, and opened up a key window into the daily grind and seldom-exposed recesses of our court system.

The media tends to gravitate toward coverage of the more dramatic breakdowns in the criminal justice system, but what's also needed is a look at the daily operations that might seem mundane -- from court fees to jury selection. For an idea of what this looks like, check out Palta's blogging here, and a radio segment about her experience here.

In particular, Palta was struck by the realization that there simply weren't other like-minded reporters at the courthouse -- reporters who'd sit through lengthy hearings, even if it didn't result in a quick-hit story. Despite the abundance of of crime coverage in newspapers and especially on our local TV news, convictions and the sentencing process tends to get at most a few column inches. The judicial process is poorly covered -- as Palta says, "Life and death decisions are being made in these courthouses all the time and nobody hears about them....Cases sort of disappear into paperwork and get filed in some vault somewhere and that's it."

Spot.us needs to raise just $182 more to give KALW its next assignment to look deeper into the workings of the criminal justice system -- the plan is to cover parole, to learn where parolees end up and whether post-release supervision is working. Readers can chip in here. Other Spot.Us stories waiting for funding include money for freelancer Justin McLachlan, who needs to raise $600 more to fund a story on California's DNA, and Ryan Van Lenning, who's just $100 away from funding a story on the underground business of marijuana.

The problem in U.S. media isn't the quantity of crime coverage, but the fact that stories routinely short-circuit reform by highlighting violence alone. It'll take our dollars to make sure reporting on the system gets the airtime it deserves -- but fortunately, there's never been a greater opportunity to take that stand.

Photo Credit: DNA.gov