A few years ago, families in Connecticut sparked a monumental change in the state's approach to corrections. A coalition of advocates and everyday residents convinced lawmakers here to eliminate fees for prison phone calls.
Those fees were once a costly burden for people who are incarcerated and their families. Making them free has been life-changing for many people in prison, allowing them to maintain relationships with people on the outside.
To tell that story, Connecticut Public partnered with The 19th News, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on the intersection of gender, politics and policy. One of the organization's reporters, Candice Norwood, came to us with a proposal to highlight Connecticut's shift to free prison phone calls, and we were eager to work on the project together.
For the first few months we spent reporting, we conducted several interviews via Zoom. We spoke with two dozen people including currently and formerly incarcerated people, family members, government officials and advocates. After all of the conversations, we decided who we wanted to feature in the story and coordinated meeting them in person.
Once everything was set, Candice flew to Connecticut so we could start our on-the-ground reporting. We were able to spend a substantial amount of time with the subjects of our story and see them in their everyday lives. We went to their jobs, homes and neighborhoods so we could gain insight into who they are to be able to tell their stories authentically.
We decided to center the story around women as an estimated 1 in 4 women around the country has a loved one in prison. Our three central characters were a mother of a formerly incarcerated son, a mother of a currently incarcerated son and a mother of three who was formerly incarcerated herself. When choosing central characters for a story, it's important to choose people who can speak to the impact of what we're covering.
Once we started to put the story together, Candice took the lead on the written piece, and I crafted a companion audio story, which aired on our radio newscast. We worked to make sure our stories were aligned and came together in the end for a unified collaboration.
I think this partnership worked well because Candice had an understanding of the issue more broadly as she had reported on free prison calls before. That knowledge, paired with my local connections, and my prior reporting on the Connecticut Department of Correction, helped us come together to produce this story.
