Charlotte West, the nation’s only reporter dedicated to covering higher education in prisons, has been named a finalist for the Institute for Nonprofit News “Breaking Barriers” Award.
The award recognizes “reporting that brought new understanding to an issue or topic affecting people or communities that are historically underrepresented, disadvantaged or marginalized, resulting in impactful change.” Charlotte was nominated in the large newsroom category.
Since joining the staff of Open Campus in 2021, Charlotte has built a beat that combines accountability journalism with direct service to incarcerated readers.
It is the first INN Nonprofit News Awards nomination for Open Campus. INN — which is a membership organization of hundreds of nonprofit newsrooms — received more than 600 entries in total for its awards this year.
Charlotte’s beat includes an email newsletter, College Inside, as well as enterprise reporting that serves incarcerated students, college educators, correctional officials, policymakers, advocates, and families supporting incarcerated loved ones. Thousands of incarcerated readers access Charlotte’s reporting on their tablets and Open Campus distributes nearly 2,000 print copies to subscribers across the country.
This work closes information gaps by providing vital information on topics such as navigating college and re-entry, job training, and financial aid. It also holds higher education and criminal justice systems accountable for the ways they perpetuate inequity.
And, it’s transformative — Charlotte’s work has shown how journalists can report for (and with) marginalized communities in ways that are empowering, rather than extractive.
Her work has changed the lives of incarcerated people and resulted in institution-level policy change. A collaboration with WBEZ, one of Open Campus’s partner newsrooms, revealed that many people in Illinois prisons weren’t getting full sentence reductions under a new state law that grants time off for participating in education and work. Several of the people featured in this reporting came home after we published their stories.
[Read more: After 27 years in prison, a 54-year-old is now getting his Ph.D.]
Charlotte’s reporting also demystifies life behind bars, and elevates the experience of people who are incarcerated through co-reporting and first-person essays.
[Read more: Behind bars, women in Washington learn to care for pets — and themselves.]
An incarcerated reader in Massachusetts sent the following note: “We all appreciate your efforts to highlight the lesser seen transformations that have the most potential to positively impact the broken communities we came from.”
Charlotte’s work is supported by Ascendium.
More about Open Campus
Open Campus is a nonprofit news organization that ensures communities have the independent information they need about higher education. By placing expert reporters in local newsrooms across the country, we help people understand and influence the institutions that shape their future opportunities.