Two Mississippi Today investigations — “Committed to Jail” in collaboration ProPublica and “Unfettered Power” in collaboration with The New York Times — were named semifinalists for the coveted Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

The two Mississippi Today projects were among 30 semifinalists that judges “deemed to be of extremely high quality and in keeping with the Prize’s criteria for impact on US public policy,” a Feb. 14 press release said.

Mississippi Today was the only local newsroom to earn multiple 2024 Goldsmith semifinalist honors. Mississippi Today journalists previously won the 2023 Goldsmith Prize for “The Backchannel” investigation of the state’s welfare scandal and the 2020 Goldsmith Prize for an investigation with The Marshall Project of the state’s restitution centers.

“This type of recognition is proof positive of Mississippi Today’s power to bring national audiences to important local news through partnerships with media institutions like ProPublica and The New York Times,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today editor-in-chief. “Our journalists are certainly deserving of being continually considered among the very best in the nation.”

“Committed to Jail,” a 2023 Mississippi Today and ProPublica investigation, revealed that Mississippi counties jail hundreds of people without criminal charges every year, for days or weeks at a time, solely because they may need mental health treatment — a practice that has resulted in 14 deaths since 2006 and is unique in scope in the United States.

We found that in just 19 of the state’s 82 counties, people were jailed without charges more than 2,000 times over four years. We spoke with 14 Mississippians about their experiences in jail and learned that people detained for being sick are generally treated the same as people accused of crimes. We obtained Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reports on jail deaths and pored over lawsuits and news clips to identify 15 people who died after being jailed during this process since 2006, (including the most recent death in January, after the original series was published). And we surveyed behavioral health officials and disability rights advocates in all 50 states to show that Mississippi stands alone.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today and ProPublica’s full series

“Unfettered Power,” a 2023 investigation from the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today and The New York Times, revealed how Mississippi sheriffs rule like kings, wielding vast power, exploiting and abusing the very people they are called to protect with no one stopping them.

Sheriffs accused of raping women in their custody without consequences. Beating others they arrested or jailed. Spying on citizens for personal reasons. Deputies using Tasers to torment residents. And a 20-year reign of terror by a “Goon Squad” that barged into homes in the middle of the night, handcuffing or holding people at gunpoint, and torturing them into confessing or providing information.

Mississippi Today and The New York Times produced a series of stories that revealed not just these travesties but also how powerful allies in the criminal justice system – from local prosecutors and judges to the state attorney general and the Justice Department – had repeatedly failed to investigate or prosecute sheriffs for them.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today and The New York Times’ full series

The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, one of the nation’s most prestigious journalism honors, is housed at the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. Finalists for the 2024 award will be announced in the coming weeks, and the winner will be announced on April 3.

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