Special Report: Morgan State, N.C. A&T journalists probe local detention centers

Where incarceration is concerned, the age-old question has always been one of purpose. Do we put people behind bars because we want retribution or reformation? But where people of color are concerned, an emerging consensus among historians is that jailing is actually designed to accomplish a third purpose. Neither retribution nor reformation, but regulation, i.e., the control of an inconvenient population. It is a thesis that draws a direct line between antebellum America and mass incarceration America, between shackles and handcuffs.

During an 18-month investigation, students from Morgan State University in Baltimore and North Carolina A&T in Greensboro sought to test and flesh out that thesis.

It began in the spring of 2019, as Dean DeWayne Wickham of the Morgan State School of Global Journalism and Communication, in cooperation with Department Chair Gail Wiggins of North Carolina A&T State University, launched a student-engaged investigative project on jails. An initial group of eight students, four from each university, was selected to investigate jails and related issues in their respective communities.

Professor David Squires and Professor Tira Murray at N.C. A&T supervised students assigned to the Greensboro Juvenile Detention Center. Students assigned to Baltimore jails were supervised by then-Assistant Dean and Director of Programs Jacqueline Jones and Professor of Practice Randall Pinkston. Later, Morgan State Professor Wayne Dawkins provided assistance with editing while N.C. A&T Professor Michael Carter, graphic designer Sherry Poole Clark, and Morgan State staff member Christopher Green focused on technical issues, including web design and video and audio editing.

A special arrangement by Wickham and the Poynter Institute invited students and faculty from N.C. A&T and Morgan State SGJC to attend a professional in-depth seminar on jails. The two-day workshop was held at Morgan State and featured experts, researchers and journalists who presented findings from Poynter’s long-term national investigative project on jails.

In the weeks after the Poynter Jails Workshop, teams from N.C. A&T and Morgan State held a series of meetings to discuss the organization of the project, initial research, and people who should be interviewed. Student journalists were urged to focus on identifying previously-incarcerated individuals who could share first-hand experience.

In-depth work began shortly after the opening of the 2019 -2020 academic year. For various reasons, including academic load and family issues, some of the initial student journalists withdrew from the project. Faculty advisors found replacements. This was the first of several withdrawals and replacements of student journalists.

The project’s continuity was further challenged by the spring 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. The sudden closing of campuses not only disrupted course work, but “shelter in place” edicts and understandable hesitancy to conduct in-person interviews also forced student journalists to rely on ZOOM and the telephone to contact sources and conduct interviews.

The end of the 2019-2020 academic school year caused another disruption. Several student journalists graduated, prompting another scramble by faculty advisors to find replacements.

Despite restrictions on movement, travel and other difficulties, student journalists managed to find and interview medical experts, corrections officials, previously incarcerated people, activists and legal experts. Student journalists also obtained documents and images from numerous web-based resources.

Stories focused on solutions. For example, managers of the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center switched its approach to obtaining compliance from incarcerated juveniles. Instead of punishment for violations, the Detention Center used positive reinforcement techniques.

In Baltimore, students obtained an extensive interview with a man who went from jail to prison for more than a decade. After his release in 2010, Carlmichael Stokey Cannady became a successful businessman, an advocate for criminal justice reform and, most recently, a mayoral candidate for the city of Baltimore.

By the second semester of the 2020-21 academic year, most students had completed drafts of their stories. Faculty advisors Squires, Dawkins, Pinkston and Jones began editing. Carter and Green provided technical support, including the design and construction of the web platform with input and guidance from faculty team members and approval by Professor Leonard Pitts, Director of the Center for Urban Journalism at the Morgan State University School of Global Journalism Communication.