Previous Winners

2015
Miami Herald reporters Carol Marbin Miller and Audra D.S. Burch for "Innocents Lost," their examination of six years of child deaths in Florida. The project resulted in the most sweeping overhaul of child welfare laws in the state’s history.

2014
A team of reporters from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for their series “Deadly Delays,” documenting how delays at hospitals across the country undermine newborn screening programs, putting babies at risk of disability and death.

2013
Alexandra Zayas of the Tampa Bay Times for her three-part series "In God's Name," which uncovered abuse at unlicensed religious children homes in Florida.

2012
Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times for their three-part series “Methadone and the Politics of Pain.”

2011
A team of reporters from The Los Angeles Times, led by Ruben Vives and Jeff Gottlieb, for uncovering pervasive municipal corruption in the city of Bell, Calif.

2010
ProPublica's T. Christian Miller for his work revealing that insurance coverage for private contractors in war zones has become a boon for companies and a disaster for those who rely upon it for treatment and death benefits.

2009
Sandra Peddie and Eden Laikin of Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.), for their articles exposing widespread corruption and systemic failures in local special government districts on Long Island.

2008
Dana Priest and Anne Hull of The Washington Post, for coverage of conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

2007
Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of the Hartford Courant, for their series exposing the US military’s recruitment and deployment of mentally ill soldiers into Iraq.

2006
Reporters and editors from The Washington Post, for their series exposing illegal activities and corruption surrounding Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

2005
Reporters and editors from The Washington Post, for their series exposing lead contamination in the District of Columbia water supply and the failure of public officials to inform and protect residents.

2004
Reporters and editors from Gannett New Jersey newspapers, for their groundbreaking series exposing a government system that allows elected officials to exploit their positions for personal gain.

2003
A team of reporters and editors from the Boston Globe, for their series "Crisis in the Catholic Church" that led to a new movement among laity, a new state law requiring clergy to report sexual abuse, grand jury investigations, a revolt among Boston priests against their leadership, a national child-protection policy in the Catholic Church, and ultimately the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, one of the nation's most influential Catholic prelates.

2002
Heidi Evans and David Saltonstall of the New York Daily News, for "classic investigative reporting" in their expose of possible financial misconduct and other illegal activities at Hale House, the renowned Harlem shelter serving women and children.

2001
Virginia Ellis of the Los Angeles Times, in recognition of uncovering information that led to the resignation of California's state insurance commissioner, termed by award judges as "a classic example of persistent investigative reporting that exposed official wrongdoing and got results."

2000
(co-winners) A reporter team from The Philadelphia Inquirer for "The Rape Squad Files" and Katherine Boo of The Washington Post for "Invisible Lives, Invisible Deaths."

1999
A team of reporters from The Washington Post for their series "Deadly Force: An Investigation of D. C. Police Shootings."

1998
Gary Cohn and Will Englund of The Baltimore Sun for "The Shipbreakers," exposing a covert international industry.

1997
Byron Acohido of The Seattle Times for his series "Safety At Issue: The 737," which detailed serious problems with the Boeing 737.

1996
Ginger Thompson and Gary Cohn of The Baltimore Sun for "Battalion 316," exposing atrocities committed by a secret Honduran military intelligence unit.

1995
Five reporters for The New Orleans Times-Picayune for their series exposing political influence peddling involving the legalized gaming industry.

1994
Eileen Welsome of The Albuquerque Tribune for revealing that hundreds of Americans unknowingly had been used in government radiation experiments.

1993
Roy Gutman, Newsday's European correspondent, for exposing the horror of widespread imprisonment, deportation and murder of Muslims in Bosnia.

1992
A team from The Greenville (South Carolina) News, for uncovering financial extravagance by high officials of the University of South Carolina.

1991
Candy J. Cooper of The San Francisco Examiner for a series documenting the handling of rape cases by the Oakland, Calif., Police Department.

1990
(co-winners) Jane O. Hansen, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for her series concerning abused and neglected Georgia children; and a team of ten journalists from the The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader for investigating questionable financial policies in the Kentucky school system.