Bryan Hess and Sarah Schaeffer of the Penn Points newspaper, Penn Manor High School, Millersville, Pa., were chosen as winners of NSPA’s $1,000 Brasler Prize for 2011.
Hess and Schaeffer’s story, “Life has a different meaning for juveniles tried as adults,” was selected by Wayne Brasler, for whom the contest is named, from the five First Place winners in print categories of the NSPA Story of the Year contest. Brasler’s comments on the winning entry, which placed first in the Feature category:
In a story few student newspapers would conceive much less pursue, the Penn Points staff established and continued correspondence with juveniles who had been charged as adults for their crimes and were serving life sentences in adult correctional facilities in Pennsylvania.
The impetus for doing the story was Pennsylvania having the most juveniles with life sentences in the United States of any state. Writers Hess and Schaeffer used excerpts from correspondence with the juveniles, choosing to preserve them as written without correcting grammar or punctuation. This decision results in quotes which deliver information at multiple levels and ring with truth. They are backed up with facts and figures, as well as observations from interviews with a variety of experts dealing with juveniles from the criminal justice system. The story repeatedly comes up startling but within an environment of intelligence, balance and equal respect for all sources.
This is challenging and venturesome journalism, but also highly educational with impact to readers of any age or background. The writing approach is simple, fluid, conversational and consequently compelling. There’s nothing extraneous and nothing obvious. Everything about this unusual and courageous project seems just right.
Wayne Brasler is a longtime media adviser at the University of Chicago High School who served for many years on NSPA’s Board of Directors and authored multiple editions of the NSPA Newspaper Guidebook.