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NYT Reporter Sam Dolnick Receives 2012 Worth Bingham Prize

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

During the Worth Bingham Prize dinner on May 9, 2013, New York Times reporter Sam Dolnick spoke about what it took to produce Unlocked: Inside New Jersey’s Halfway Houses. He credited editors Clifford J. Levy and Carolyn Ryan with providing the formula for his award-winning series: “You need personal stories to make statistics come alive; you need sympathetic characters the reader will connect with; you need data/statistics to be fully digested so that you can write with authority in every sentence; you need primary documents that no one has ever seen before; and you need to get everything on the record,” said Dolnick. “This work is rare and it’s hard and expensive but it’s crucially important. It’s also lonely – investigative reporting – it’s hard.”

During his 10-month investigation, Dolnick discovered a broken and horribly flawed correctional system in which gang activity, drug use, sexual assaults and other violent behavior were commonplace and where lax security led to thousands of escapes. “Unlocked” prompted calls for change and led to hearings in both houses of New Jersey’s state legislature, resulting in the introduction of 14 reform bills.

Read the press release »
Learn more about “Unlocked” and the Worth Bingham Prize »

Michael J. Berens

Michael J. Berens, 51, is an investigative reporter for The Seattle Times, where he has worked since 2004. He previously worked for seven years on the investigative team at the Chicago Tribune and for 13 years at The Columbus Dispatch. He began his newspaper career as a copy boy in 1981 – at age 22 – while attending Ohio State University.

He has won dozens of regional and national awards and twice has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Recent awards include Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE); Clark Mollenhoff for Investigative Reporting; Edgar A. Poe Memorial Award, White House Correspondents Association; Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Berens’ investigative projects at The Times include “Culture of Resistance,” an examination of the unchecked growth of the antibiotic-resistant germ MRSA; “Miracle Machines,” which tracked deadly and unsafe medical devices; and “License to Harm,” which exposed how state regulators ignored or excused sexual misconduct among health-care practitioners. Other works examined how young, mentally ill wards were illegally warehoused in geriatric nursing homes; unsanitary hospital conditions responsible for breeding deadly germs; and a discarded military vaccine that resulted in the death of soldiers.

Berens is a former adjunct professor for Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism graduate program, where he taught analytical journalism techniques. He has been a trainer and panelist for a variety of journalism groups, including IRE and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism.