Texas Gov. Greg Abbott canceled funds for Travis County after Sheriff Sally Hernandez refused to back down from her plans to institute a sanctuary city policy.
Shoshana Walter
Reporter
Shoshana Walter is a reporter for Reveal, covering criminal justice. She and reporter Amy Julia Harris exposed how courts across the country are sending defendants to rehabs that are little more than lucrative work camps for private industry. Their work was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting. It also won the Knight Award for Public Service, a Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting, and an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a finalist for the Selden Ring, IRE and Livingston Awards. It led to numerous government investigations, two criminal probes and five federal class-action lawsuits alleging slavery, labor violations and fraud.
Walter's investigation on America's armed security guard industry revealed how armed guard licenses have been handed out to people with histories of violence, even people barred by courts from owning guns. Walter and reporter Ryan Gabrielson won the 2015 Livingston Award for Young Journalists for national reporting based on the series, which prompted new laws and an overhaul of California’s regulatory system. For her 2016 investigation about the plight of "trimmigrants," marijuana workers in California's Emerald Triangle, Walter embedded herself in illegal mountain grows and farms. There, she encountered an epidemic of sex abuse and human trafficking in the industry – and a criminal justice system focused more on the illegal drugs. The story prompted legislation, a criminal investigation and grass-roots efforts by the community, including the founding of a worker hotline and safe house.
Walter began her career as a police reporter for The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, and previously covered violent crime and the politics of policing in Oakland, California, for The Bay Citizen. Her narrative nonfiction as a local reporter garnered a national Sigma Delta Chi Award and a Gold Medal for Public Service from the Florida Society of News Editors. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she has been a Dart Center Ochberg fellow for journalism and trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim fellow in criminal justice journalism. She is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.
Posted inInequality, Trimmigrants
Labor union sets its sights on organizing pot workers
One of the largest labor unions in the country is pushing California regulators to better protect marijuana workers in the wake of legalization by requiring health and safety training.
Posted inInequality, Trimmigrants
Pot trimmers wanted in death of grower
Five “trimmigrants” are accused of murdering their former employer as he slept on his marijuana farm in Laytonville, California.
Posted inInequality, The Trump Era, Trimmigrants, Worked Over
As legalization catches fire, where will Trump land on pot?
President-elect Donald Trump once called the county’s drug enforcement efforts “a joke.” He once said legalizing drugs was a better tactic. But as the dust settles after a contentious election – and after another eight states legalized some form of weed – the future of marijuana under Trump isn’t quite clear.
Posted inVoting
Georgia man makes bid to become county’s first black commissioner
In the nearly 200-year history of Gwinnett County, every official elected to countywide office has been white.
Posted inImmigration, Inequality, Trimmigrants, Worked Over
What’s happened since our report on sex abuse in the pot industry
All through the fall, hopeful marijuana trimmers have poured into California’s Emerald Triangle for coveted jobs. If they haven’t read our investigation, they may not know about the dangers they face. But is anyone doing anything about it?
Posted inInequality, Voting
Disabled and disenfranchised: Families fight to restore voting rights
Across the country, thousands of people with appointed guardians routinely lose the right to vote under state laws. Some say the laws prevent voter manipulation and fraud. But advocates say they are built on flawed assumptions about the abilities of disabled people.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Inequality, Law Enforcement, Local Law Enforcement, Trimmigrants
How to (and not to) address worker abuse on pot farms
The Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office, a small agency of about 65 sworn officers, was able to pull off a complex investigation into abuse and trafficking on a marijuana farm.
Posted inGuns, Hired Guns
Why California cracked down on oversight of armed security guards
Our investigation found regulators in California and many other states frequently license armed guards who are poorly trained, mentally unstable and prone to violence.
Posted inAccountability, Criminal Justice, Local Law Enforcement, Trimmigrants, Workers’ Rights
Pot growers call for labor regulation after abuse disclosures
The director of the California Growers Association now is calling for a series of solutions after Reveal published an investigation into sexual abuse in the state’s pot country.