Molly Parker
JournalistMolly Parker was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award earlier this year for their months long investigations into Choate. Those were conducted while Parker was a member of the Lee Enterprises Midwest Public Service Journalism team.
Prior to accepting that position last year, she was a reporter at the Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale since 2014. In that role, Parker exposed a housing crisis in Cairo, the state’s southernmost city, that resulted in a federal takeover of the county’s housing authority and the relocation of about 400 people from two dilapidated, WWII-era apartment complexes.
Parker is also an assistant professor of journalism at Southern Illinois University and a distinguished fellow with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, which creates partnerships between nonprofit and local newsrooms. She joins Capitol News Illinois on July 19.
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The Franklin Co. Juvenile Detention Center abruptly closed on Dec. 31 after a judge ordered the closure because of staffing shortages and ability to meet state standards. -
Carterville casino was authorized by 2019 law expanding Illinois’ gambling industry -
Nationwide, about 17% of $1.2 trillion in small business pandemic relief grants were fraudulent -
3 downstate companies have signed contracts to receive tax credits, create and maintain jobs -
A new state watchdog report calls for a “fundamental overhaul” at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center. But the state kept on administrators who were in charge during some of the facility’s most troubled years. -
Prompted by an outcry over abuse, Illinois proposed moving residents from Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center to similar facilities in the state. New reporting shows the problems at Choate are common throughout the statewide system. -
The legislation, spurred by a news investigation, allows workers to be barred from health care jobs for obstructing investigations into staff misconduct -
Pritzker says cultural issues at facility are ‘something that you can’t snap your fingers and fix’ -
Officials acknowledged that news reporting had put a spotlight on conditions at facility plagued by abuse, cover-ups -
Ongoing investigations of state-run facility have revealed culture of abuse and cover-ups
