Ashley Balcerzak, Jean Rimbach, The Record (New Jersey)

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Exposing widespread failures in New Jersey’s $1.5 billion group home system for adults with disabilities required NorthJersey.com/The Record journalists Ashley Balcerzak and Jean Rimbach to navigate a minefield of ethical dilemmas, from families’ fear of retaliation to the reporters’ own concerns that showing photographs of residents’ injuries would be exploitative. Balcerzak and Rimbach spent months working with sources to be sure they understood the implications of telling their stories, including the reporters’ duty to offer allegedly abusive homes an opportunity to comment. The journalists went back to families repeatedly to obtain corroborating documents, fact-check, and make sure the families were comfortable with the stories’ revelations. That painstaking work resulted in the searing details that make The Record’s reporting so powerful.