Skip to main content
The 2000 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Public Service

Finalist: Chicago Tribune , by Staff

For its extensive investigation of the failures of the legal justice system, documenting misconduct by prosecutors and inequities in death penalty cases, which led the governor of Illinois to suspend state executions.

Winners

Prize Winner in Public Service in 2000:

The Washington Post, notably for the work of Katherine Boo

that disclosed wretched neglect and abuse in the city's group homes for the mentally retarded, which forced officials to acknowledge the conditions and begin reforms. Public Service

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in Public Service in 2000:

Staff

For an investigative series, including an innovative presentation on its Web site, by Mark Fazlollah, Craig McCoy, Michael Matza and Clea Benson that revealed how Philadelphia police had routinely minimized and did not investigate many sexual assault claims, leading to reform of the system.

The Jury

Robert H. Giles(chair )

senior vice president

Gilbert Bailon

vice president/executive editor

Mike Jacobs

editor and vice president

David Laventhol

publisher

James Ottaway

chairman of the board, CEO

Kathy Silverberg

executive editor

Karin Winner

editor

Winners in Public Service

1999

The Washington Post

For its series that identified and analyzed patterns of reckless gunplay by city police officers who had little training or supervision.
1998

Grand Forks (ND) Herald

For its sustained and informative coverage, vividly illustrated with photographs, that helped hold its community together in the wake of flooding, a blizzard and a fire that devastated much of the city, including the newspaper plant itself.
1997

The Times-Picayune

For its comprehensive series analyzing the conditions that threaten the world's supply of fish.
1996

The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

For the work of Melanie Sill, Pat Stith and Joby Warrick on the environmental and health risks of waste disposal systems used in North Carolina's growing hog industry.
See All Public Service

2000 Prize Winners

Beat Reporting

George Dohrmann

For his determined reporting, despite negative reader reaction, that revealed academic fraud in the men's basketball program at the University of Minnesota.
See All 2000 Winners