The Arizona Daily Star won the top prize in the Arizona Media Associationās inaugural Copper State Awards, for an investigation by reporters Emily Bregel and Emily Hamer into the use of solitary confinement at a private, for-profit prison in Eloy housing U.S. immigration detainees.
The titles of the two-part investigation were: "ICE uses solitary confinement to scare people into self-deporting; experts say the coercive practice is unconstitutional" and, āICE uses solitary confinement as a āquick fixā for vulnerable, suicidal detainees."
The project was published in May by the Star, where Bregel writes about border and immigration issues. Hamer participated in the reporting through her work on the Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team.Ā Ā
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Emily BregelĀ
For receiving the Copper State award, presented Thursday night at a ceremony in Phoenix, Bregel and Hamer split a $5,000 prize and the Star receives $2,500, provided by the Arizona Media Association through a partnership with the A-Mark Foundation toĀ recognize outstanding local investigative journalism across Arizona.Ā
Emily Hamer
ABC15 Arizona and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting tied for second place.
The top awards, with monetary prizes, were selected from the first-place award winners in six divisional award categories.
In addition to winning that top category and the underlying first place that qualified them for it, Bregel and Hamer received second-place recognition in a divisional category, for their report in February about a 79-year-old Cuban asylum seeker with dementia. The woman had been held in U.S. immigration detention in Eloy for nine months despite her deteriorating physical and cognitive health. Known as La Abuela (The Grandmother in Spanish) to her fellow detainees, she was released 11 days after the Star's report, pending the outcome of her asylum case.Ā
Emily Bregel is the Arizona Daily Starās border reporter. She started with an internship at the Baltimore Sun that launched her journalism career. Her first job out of college was at the Chattanooga Times Free Press and said she learned all about journalism from mentors and the newsroom. David and Emily discuss how local border reporting is important and different from the national angle, they discuss future projects and adventures Emily has had while on the job.
Arizona ICE detainee wakes, still critical; future uncertain
