The Marshall Project Wins NPPA Award for ‘Inside Story’ Investigations

Filed
11:02 a.m. EDT

03.17.2025

“Inside Story” is an revolutionary video collection that brings important accountability and investigative journalism to prisons, jails and past.

The Marshall Venture was awarded first prize within the Nationwide Press Photographers Affiliation contest on visible journalism for a collection of investigations featured in Inside Story, an revolutionary video collection that brings important information to audiences on each side of the jail partitions.

The Marshall Venture was acknowledged with first prize within the “Crew Video – Portfolio” class, and was additionally awarded third place within the “Crew Video – Information & Challenge” class for a type of options: an in-depth investigation with St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reviews into why the town has greater than 1,000 unsolved murders and the complexities that regulation enforcement faces.

Among the many items showcased within the Inside Story portfolio have been tales on how efforts to decrease well being care prices in jails have stirred controversy, the affect of correctional workers shortages on their households and people of incarcerated individuals, and the lengthy quest of prisoners to overturn their convictions on the idea of now-debunked hair evaluation.

Throughout six episodes, Inside Story additionally featured insightful interviews with outstanding changemakers in coverage, social justice and leisure, together with actor and rapper Widespread and comic Donnell Rawlings. Rapper G. Dep additionally sat down with host Lawrence Bartley for an unique dialog days after his launch from jail.

Co-created by Bartley and Donald Washington, Jr., each of whom work at The Marshall Venture and have been themselves previously incarcerated, Inside Story options investigations, animated first-person essays, quick options on those that have bettered their lives after jail, and explainers that unravel advanced information or highlight forgotten historical past.

“This honor highlights the vital and distinctive work we’re doing at The Marshall Venture. Via the Marshall Venture Inside workforce, we have been in a position to get this important journalism into prisons and jails throughout the nation,” mentioned Bartley, the writer of Information Inside, our print publication for incarcerated readers and govt producer of Inside Story.

Within the award-winning multi-part investigative collection Unsolved, journalists at St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reviews fought for years in court docket to acquire murder clearance price data from the St. Louis police. The data have been lastly launched in 2023, at which level The Marshall Venture joined the investigation. The info revealed that police had solved fewer than half of the town’s homicides over the earlier decade, with clearance charges dropping to simply 31% in 2019 — a low level for St. Louis.

The investigation uncovered stark racial disparities, exhibiting that whereas Black individuals made up 90% of murder victims, police have been way more more likely to remedy instances involving White victims. Reporters constructed relationships with grieving households, uncovering a devastating breakdown in communication and belief between police and the neighborhood.

“We’re thrilled to obtain this honor as we ramp up our Missouri information workforce primarily based out of St. Louis,” mentioned Geraldine Sealey, appearing editor-in-chief. “Via our journalism, toolkits and media partnerships, we hope to shine a lightweight on many prison justice points throughout the state that demand public consideration.”

The Nationwide Press Photographers Affiliation is knowledgeable group devoted to advancing visible storytelling and journalism, and consists of photographers, videographers and multimedia journalists. The annual contest honors the very best of photojournalism, together with photos, picture enhancing, movies and displays that “illuminate and resonate.”