Prism is hiring a Staff Reporter to contribute to our coverage of criminal justice in the United States, which encompasses issues like policing, sentencing, bail and pretrial incarceration, the movement for prison abolition, challenges facing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, and race, gender, and LGBTQIA+ issues within the criminal justice system. Prism aims not only to expose the problems and challenges in these areas, but to amplify the solutions and ideas from activists, organizers, and affected people who are working toward reform.

Day to day, the Staff Reporter will produce a mix of news briefs and longer stories, narrative features, and explainers. To this end, the reporter must be fluent in a number of different modes of reporting and writing, from in-depth interviews for profiles to discussing complex data and statistics with experts and conducting investigative reporting and FOIA requests. This position can be remote.

The Staff Reporter will work in concert with other Prism reporters to zoom in on specific criminal justice issues facing underrepresented communities and to highlight local community organizing and reform efforts. Apart from their primary focus on criminal justice, the reporter will have the opportunity to work on stories for Prism’s electoral justice vertical and on other subjects as they arise. The reporter will also have the opportunity to innovate and create new ways to advance our meta-narratives, including via multimedia additions like podcasting and video.

The Staff Reporter must excel at collaboration, as they will work closely with the Managing Editor, reporting team, contributing writers, and Senior Fellows. Prism’s Senior Fellows are national leaders who help establish the big ideas that will guide the vertical’s narrative; staff reporters and contributing writers will delve into and advance these ideas through their contributions.

Applicants should have at least three to five years’ experience covering criminal justice issues. If you don’t fit perfectly into this criteria but have a strong reporting background and want to tell us about the interest and unique skills and experience you would bring to this coverage area, we encourage you to apply. Your application should reflect what you’ve done, what you can do, and what you would — or would want to — do as a Staff Reporter at Prism.

Consistent with our mission, we believe the experiences of people of color, LGBTQ persons, and women should be centered in our work and we encourage people from these communities to apply to join us. We look forward to hearing from candidates why they are interested in and how they would inhabit this role.

SALARY & COMPENSATION
Starting salary will be between $60-65K. Prism offers a comprehensive, progressive benefit program, including 100% employer-paid medical/dental/vision insurance (50% for dependents) available at start date; six weeks paid vacation plus eight paid holidays per year; 70 hours paid sick leave per year; generous maternity/paternity leave policy; 401(k) match; and more.

We have offices in Oakland, CA, and Washington, D. C., though applicants may choose to work anywhere in the U. S.

TO APPLY
To apply, please create a single-document file that includes the following, in this order:

Email the address below with your single-document file containing what’s outlined above, along with the subject line: Staff Reporter – Criminal Justice, by the conclusion of Sunday, January 5. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.