Joaquin Sapien
Joaquin Sapien is a reporter at ProPublica covering criminal justice and social services.
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Joaquin Sapien was one of the first reporters hired at ProPublica in its first year of publishing in 2008. Since then, his journalism has explored a broad range of topics, including criminal justice, social services, and the environment. In 2019, he was a co-producer and correspondent for “Right to Fail,” a film for the PBS documentary series Frontline. The film was based on his 2018 examination of a flawed housing program for New Yorkers with mental illness, which appeared in the New York Times. The story immediately prompted a federal judge to order an independent investigation into the program. It won a Deadline Club Award and a Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability.
In 2015, Sapien wrote about care for troubled children, beginning with a story in the California Sunday Magazine on a group home that descended into chaos. His work helped an abused boy receive a $12 million jury award and led to the closure of another embattled home in Long Beach.
Past areas of focus include New York City Family Court, prosecutorial misconduct, traumatic brain injury, natural gas drilling, and contaminated drywall used to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Sapien’s work has earned awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists, and Investigative Reporters and Editors. He was a four-time finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Before joining ProPublica, Sapien was a reporter at the Center for Public Integrity.
Congress Passed $8.3 Billion in Emergency Coronavirus Funding, but First Responders Still Can’t Buy Masks
None of Congress’ emergency coronavirus funding goes directly to first responders for the protective gear and supplies that paramedics, firefighters and EMTs need to safely fight the virus.
Emergency Medical Responders Are Stretched for Supplies and Personnel to Combat Coronavirus
Key direction from the CDC on how to protect emergency responders came after the first American case and the exposure of at least one firefighter.
He Went to Prison After a Prosecutor Hid Evidence. Seven Years After Our Story, He Walked Free.
Tyronne Johnson was featured in a 2013 ProPublica investigation that showed how a prosecutor kept jurors from hearing evidence that may have helped him beat a murder charge. He was granted parole this week and credits the story with helping him.
These Homes for Mentally Ill Adults Have Been Notoriously Mismanaged. Now, One Is a Gruesome Crime Scene.
Oceanview Manor Home for Adults, a psychiatric group home at the center of a yearslong legal battle over the rights of people with mental illness, is now the scene of a criminal investigation involving the death of a resident and the arrest of another.
After Failing Mentally Ill New Yorkers, Adult Homes Get Second Chance
Adult homes warehoused mentally ill people for decades until a court order gave residents a chance to move. The embattled institutions were in danger of closing when the state threw them a financial life raft — the elderly.
Judge Orders Expanded Oversight for Mentally Ill New Yorkers In Supported Housing
A report released this week, commissioned after a ProPublica and Frontline investigation, found that not enough residents were covered by an incident reporting system, among other gaps.
Mentally Ill New Yorkers Seeking Independence Find Safety Net Has Holes, Report Finds
An independent monitor has found that many of the city’s most vulnerable remain stuck in troubled adult homes too long and that the state loses track of them once they move out.
Criminal Justice Legislation Will Force New York Prosecutors to Disclose More Evidence, Sooner
Following years of scandal over wrongful convictions, the state legislature has passed reform measures that could help stop them.
Behind “Right to Fail,” a ProPublica-Frontline Collaboration to Overcome Roadblocks and Privacy Restrictions
A story that began as an examination of New York’s troubled group homes for mentally ill adults evolved into an investigation of the state’s preferred solution to those problems.
Nation’s Largest Mental Health Organization Urges Supported Housing Reforms
In a letter citing a ProPublica and Frontline investigation, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has asked a U.S. district judge to ensure that people who have moved out of adult homes and into their own apartments have what they need to do so safely.