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.

 

Andrew Donohue is the deputy editor for Reveal. He works with the audience team to find out what the public needs from – and what it can contribute to – our reporting. Stories Donohue has reported and edited have led to criminal charges, firings and reforms in public housing, pesticide use, sexual harassment and labor practices, among other areas. As a reporter and editor, he’s won awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Online News Association and others. Previously, Donohue helped build and lead Voice of San Diego, a pioneering local news startup. He was a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University, where he worked on deepening engagement with investigative reporting. He serves on the IRE board of directors.