The Media Narrative

The Media Narrative


Beth Schwartzapfel: Covering Criminal Justice

May 11, 2018

Journalist Beth Schwartzapfel has been covering the criminal justice system for more than a decade, with an emphasis on telling the human stories of prisoners that are often overlooked. She is an award-winning reporter and staff writer at the Marshall Project, and her work has also appeared in publications such as The American Prospect and the New York Times.


During our 2017 conversation, Schwartzapfel talked about her beginnings in journalism (4:00); a college-prison collaboration in Washington state (7:15); low pay for prisoner labor (12:00); moral complexity in covering prisons (18:00); her reporting process (20:30); felony disenfranchisement (23:30); advice for aspiring journalists (27:00); and how she consumes news (30:45).