Newhouse Journalism Student Reflects on Helping Lead Investigative Reporting Project

When I first started at Newhouse, my heart was set on becoming an investigative reporter, but I wasn’t sure what kind of projects I was interested in. I was introduced to data journalism by assistant professor Nausheen Husain’s Data and Digital Journalism course, a requirement for undergraduate magazine, news and digital journalism (MND) majors. Though many of my peers told me the class was a hurdle they were planning to overcome and leave behind, the course gave me a sense of direction and the opportunity to work on my first investigative project.

Professor Husain became one of my biggest supporters in Newhouse, and that support pushed me to try things that I never thought myself capable of, including the piece we worked on together for more than a year. Our project — “‘Little Guantanamo’ Gets Bigger” — is now published in both The Nation and The Appeal, but as amazing as it felt to see months of research summarized and released, the process of carrying out that research was infinitely more fulfilling.

Communication Management Units (CMU) consist of two facilities located in Marion, Illinois, and Terre Haute, Indiana. The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has said that these units function as a method of terrorism prevention, and have enforced strict regulations on communications and contact with the outside world. Through our research, we found that these units are expanding in both population and infrastructure.

When these units first opened, Muslim men made up 70% of the population inside these facilities. Now, the total population has since increased by 140% between 2007 and 2022. The BOP has also signed a $2.8 million dollar contract to convert a medium-security prison in Cumberland, Maryland, into another CMU.

These statistics came to light from the research of our team, which also included MND students Olivia Boyer, Nada Merghani, Sorem Oppenheimer and researcher Aly Panjwani. We compiled a working database of almost 200 people who have been incarcerated in these highly restrictive units.

Research for this project was time-consuming since almost all of the data was not freely accessible on the internet. Much of our work was conducted through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system, which provides access to a vast collection of federal court documents for a fee. A lot of the time spent building the database was also comprised of digging for old news articles or records. 

The database is still being updated now, months after the article’s release, with new information. The stories we uncovered about people incarcerated in CMUs were hard to read, as many of them had been wrongfully convicted or ethnically profiled. 

Despite the difficult subject matter, our team worked well together and collaborated to answer questions as we worked to gather information. For me, much of the process was a matter of learning how to read court documents, allocate workloads and use my knowledge of data collection and cleaning gained from my experience in the data journalism course. I was so fortunate to have such kind editors such as Saliha Bayrak, our diligent fact-checker, and even more grateful to have had the experience. 

Some of the project was familiar, such as conducting interviews. I spoke with psychology and criminology experts Terry Kupers and Keramet Reiter, who provided valuable insight about the aftereffects of incarceration. I also gained valuable experience interviewing high-risk sources, and I hope to continue to do the important work of telling meaningful stories of anyone who’s  experienced hardship. 

It was our team’s hope that in writing this story, we would be able to spread awareness about social injustices and prevent further expansion of these units. My time working on an investigative project this past year has taught me so much about leadership, collaboration and my long-term career goals and interests. I have a newfound sense of confidence in my ability as a data journalist, and a sense of pride in the story that my team and I were able to tell.