The Missouri Foundation for Health is partnering with The Marshall Project on the launch of a St. Louis nonprofit newsroom highlighting the legal system's effect on health, especially in marginalized communities.
The Marshall Project focuses on investigative, data-driven journalism to explain the justice system, especially to those affected by it. With the foundation's support, its St. Louis newsroom will cover topics like the death penalty, juvenile justice, health care in prison conditions, and reentry challenges.
Molly Crisp, senior communications strategist at the foundation, shared the goals of the new partnership.
"We recognize that the criminal justice system disproportionately harms certain populations and that exacerbates health inequities," Crisp explained. "We're hoping through this partnership that we're bringing to light some of the issues that are rampant in the legal system and that we can address those issues."
Statistics show that low-income marginalized communities face higher pollution, increasing asthma risk, along with other health problems, and incarcerated individuals often endure long waits for medical care and face barriers to mental health treatment due to staff shortages and limited resources.
Katie Moore, a reporter for the Marshall Project, said its goal is to investigate such issues both locally and statewide.
"We have been talking with different groups, individuals who are connected to the criminal justice system in some way," Moore noted. "To see what their concerns are, what they see as being missing in the media landscape in St. Louis in terms of coverage of some of these more in-depth investigative issues."
With an increasing number of older people who are incarcerated, Missouri prisons face growing healthcare demands, including the need for geriatric care and hospice services.
This story is from the Missouri Public News Service, a partner with KRCU Public Radio.
