Desperate to reduce crowding in jails and prisons, court systems all over the country are trying diversion – alternatives to putting offenders behind bars. Reveal peeked behind the good intentions and uneven results. Credit: Gabriel Hongsdusit/Reveal

We told a lot of stories in 2017 and got to work with a lot of talented and generous newsrooms. Here’s a totally incomplete list of some of the podcasts, documentaries and scoops we want to make sure you didn’t miss:

Pizzagate: A slice of fake news

Come with us as we try to figure out how the big hoax went viral, along with Rolling Stone and The Investigative Fund. It all starts in search of a woman named Carmen with a cat in Missouri.

The smuggler

A reporter decides to smuggle a Sudanese refugee into France, on foot, through the Alps.

Too many pills

A Drug Enforcement Administration insider tried to stop drug distribution companies from flooding America with truckloads of pain pills. Reporters from The Washington Post find he got foiled by Congress.

Street fight: A new wave of political violence

With the rise of the alt-right have come violent street clashes with anti-fascists. Our journalists accidentally ended up in the middle of one.

Deadly waters

The Navy and other federal agencies award big business to shipbuilders with proven records of putting workers in harm’s way.

Heroin(e)

Follow three women – a fire chief, a judge and a street missionary – as they battle the devastating opioid epidemic in America’s overdose capital: Huntington, West Virginia.

Hate on the march: White nationalism in the Trump era

We analyze the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia; the people behind it; and their relationships to the president.

They thought they were going to rehab. They ended up in chicken plants

Criminal justice reform has unwittingly created a new class of exploited workers – drug court defendants forced to work for free, under the threat of prison.

Profiting off pain: Trump confidant cashed in on housing crisis

One of President Donald Trump’s closest friends and confidants is tantamount to a modern-day slumlord – buying up homes, bumping up rents and allowing the properties to fall into disrepair.

Until Something is Done

Oscar Grant’s killing by police in 2009 became a major media event and a movie. But what happens after the cameras are gone and the country moves on to the next story?

What was your favorite Reveal story of the year? Let me know at adonohue@revealnews.org or @add on Twitter.

 

Andy Donohue is the executive editor for projects for Reveal. He’s edited Reveal’s investigations into the treatment of migrant children in government care, Amazon’s labor practices, rehab work camps and sexual abuse in the janitorial industry. He’s been on teams that have twice been Pulitzer Prize finalists and have won Investigative Reporters and Editors, Edward R. Murrow, Online News Association, Third Coast International Audio Festival, Gerald Loeb, Sidney Hillman Foundation and Emmy awards. He previously helped build and lead Voice of San Diego, served on the IRE board for eight years and is an alumnus of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. Donohue is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.