Justice Media co-Lab at Boston University
Excerpt from University of Vermont: Community News | By: Jocelyn Rockhold, Photo: CBS Boston | June 15, 2023
Boston Globe readers were probably jarred when they saw the data revealed in a piece published two years ago: a journalistic investigation had shown that Massachusetts prison officials rarely accepted reports of abuse filed by inmates.
Between 2018 and 2021, reports of staff abuse were partially or fully accepted in only 7% of cases, a number the Department of Correction expects to be closer to 20%. Over 1,500 grievances from six of the largest prisons were filed in those three years — only 9 grievances were fully approved.
Readers may have also been surprised to learn that the hefty investigative piece was the work of student journalists — as part of Boston University’s Justice Media co-Lab, a program that gives students the tools to expose inequity and advance transparency through computational journalism and partners them with professional outlets.
“The students, most of them get really into it. It's very exciting. They're digging into some sort of problem, some sort of issue, injustice in the world,” said Brooke Williams, one of the faculty instructors. “[The students are] really getting to use their computational skills to actually make a difference in a way that they get to see.”