I don’t want to live in a world where women are beaten and raped in prison.
Or one where our parents or grandparents die alone and afraid in an understaffed, overwhelmed nursing home.
Or one where a Black or brown teenager has a life-altering encounter with the police before he’s old enough to drive.
Or one where people who paid into unemployment for decades can’t get benefits when they need them most.
And I certainly don’t want to live in a world where my children – or yours – go to a workplace where they’ll be sexual harassed. Or worse.
But that’s the sometimes-ugly world we live in. That’s our New Jersey.
And it would be far worse without the work of journalists and other watchdogs.
Every day, journalists across New Jersey advocate, inform, educate and entertain. And not just at NJ.com, The Star-Ledger and the other newspapers in our organization. Journalists across the state make New Jersey a better and safer place every day. We hold the powerful accountable, even when they attack us.
This work is complicated, time-consuming and often dangerous. It’s one reason we hope you’ll choose to directly support our mission with a digital subscription to NJ.com by clicking this link.
Consider these five examples – and there are many more – of the impact we had in 2020:
1. Stamping out sexual harassment in Trenton.
Sue Livio and Kelly Heyboer delivered a jarring investigation at the end of 2019 that showed an ongoing cycle of sexual harassment and abuse in the elite circles of power in and around state government. In 2020, 10 bills were proposed and Sen. Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg formed the Workgroup on Harassment, Sexual Assault and Misogyny in New Jersey Politics.
That group, in a landmark report earlier this month, lauded Heyboer and Livio’s work for detailing how women were routinely harassed and marginalized, and how, too often, the abhorrent behavior was dismissed. It’s worth repeating: This was happening at the highest levels in and around state government.
2. Exposing the nightmares in nursing homes.
Last May, Sue Livio and Ted Sherman delivered a signature investigation that detailed the state’s repeated failures early in the pandemic to protect the susceptible residents of nursing homes and the people who take care of them.
Reaction was immediate. Legislators scrambled to address the many problems we highlighted, working to raise the minimum wage for workers, ordering nursing homes to better communicate with families, and establishing tougher penalties for failing facilities. Sherman and Livio also exposed the political infighting that stalled reform even as hundreds were dying of COVID each day, the lack of transparency on deaths, and how facilities cut staff despite receiving government aid.
State Sen. Joseph Cryan, who sponsored several reforms, said of our investigation: “The stories created awareness. These people were living off the radar, and you guys put it in the forefront. These bills did not happen without that.”
3. Giving voice to the incarcerated populations.
Our mission includes advocating for all of the state’s most vulnerable populations. Last year, an investigation from Blake Nelson, Joe Atmonavage and S.P. Sullivan showed how dozens died of the coronavirus in state prisons. The investigation sparked legislative hearings that questioned the Murphy administration’s slow response and the performance of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks. Those hearings prompted legislation that forced the prison system to release low-risk inmates early, no doubt saving lives.
Our team also continues to report on abuses at the state’s only women’s prison. An earlier Sullivan investigation provided federal investigators a roadmap for their report that concluded sexual and physical abuse at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton was widespread. In January of 2020, Murphy signed three bills aimed at preventing sex abuse inside the prison.
In another series of exclusives this week, we reported on suspensions at the prison after officers were accused of severely beating inmates. In one of the worst alleged cases, an inmate is now in a wheelchair after being beaten while handcuffed. We’re following the story and will have more details from inside the prison. A growing number of legislators say they are “appalled” by the latest revelations.
4. Fighting for you and what you’re owed.
For years, we have reported on the state’s inability to upgrade critical infrastructure and to handle complicated programs. So you can imagine the outrage when 2 million or so New Jerseyans were forced to navigate the absolute nightmare that was, and still is, the state’s unemployment system.
Karin Price Mueller was a champion for you in 2020 – as she is every year – working tirelessly to provide answers others could not or would not. Sophie Nieto-Munoz is doing similar work for our readers and also teamed with Matt Stanmyre to reveal the state’s shameful failure to clean up the mess in the 19 years since the problems were diagnosed. Our reporters’ relentless focus on the crisis has forced the incremental improvements that finally came.
5. Confronting police brutality head-on.
In a year that finally saw this issue get the attention it deserves after George Floyd’s killing while in police custody, it was gratifying to see our state take action, albeit 25 months after we published The Force Report.
On Dec. 21, 2020, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced that all 38,000 police officers in New Jersey would be bound by new guidelines on when they can hit, chase or shoot suspects. After this year, departments will be required to review every incident where any force is used, and incidents will be put into a database similar to one we built with five years of police data. Also, police dogs no longer will be used on suspects who are only resisting arrest.
These local reforms are a result, at least in part, of our investigation and no doubt will address one of the awful problems the Force Report highlighted: Some officers disproportionately and repeatedly use unnecessary, excessive force. How many? We’ll never know, but Grewal’s reforms are a long-overdue start to confronting an unspoken truth that has hung over certain communities for generations. The Attorney General said the policies were aimed at protecting “the sanctity of human life.”
* * *
That’s just some of our impact, and one way we measure how we’re doing. Of course, our work for you continues today. You’ve seen us react to the vaccine rollout in a way that reminds me of our coverage of unemployment benefits.
All of this is possible because of our staff – people who deliver devastating and penetrating work while facing the same pandemic challenges you face. I am grateful for what they do every day.
I also remain grateful for you, our readers, your thousands of emails and the discussions about our coverage and how we can improve.
Our print subscribers and advertisers have supported us in times of turbulence and change, many for decades and through generations of family. Thank you for sticking with us as we struggled to adapt and evolve.
Early last year, as the sobering economic impact of the pandemic came into focus, we launched a digital subscription program. After 24 years of offering open access to our news – consider it a free trial of epic proportions -- this was a big shift for us. We then started adding Subscriber Exclusive stories to NJ.com, a way to highlight our best work and remind readers it merits direct financial support.
Today, a subscription is required to read many of those stories and most readers have responded with affirmation and an understanding of where digital media is heading. (As I like to ask friends, has your cable provider cut your bill during the pandemic? And are you still paying for newspapers and magazines?)
So if you already have a digital subscription, thank you. Your support means everything to us.
We see your support at work as NJ.com continues to grow audience and reach more people than ever. January will be one of our best audience months; it’s clear millions of you rely on us for timely and relevant news, our data reporting and investigations, our up-to-the minute, unparalleled high school, college and pro sports coverage, and our lifestyle and food content that speaks to our unique Jersey way of life.
Thank you for being a part of this journey. We did better for you in 2020. Our entire team is proud of that and eager to continue the work – for you and with you, our readers and supporters.
If you have a tip you’d like to share, please reach out here.
If you have a question or comment, you can reach me directly at this email address.
And if you are able to support us with a digital subscription -- at just 27 cents per day for a full year of access and insight -- please get started today with this link.
Kevin Whitmer is Senior VP for Content, Expansion and Development for NJ Advance Media.
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