I like to anchor my reporting with data and public records. In one of my favorite projects, I used court records to collect data that didn’t exist elsewhere. During a three-month investigation, I found that one in five inmates in Hinds County, Mississippi spent three months or longer in jail without indictment, meaning the court system wasn’t processing the case. Inmates spent months, a year or longer in jail without an indictment due to an ill-funded court system that moves at a glacial pace with no oversight.

My story raised awareness of pre-trial incarceration in Mississippi, an issue that later became a topic of study for the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law, which found a third of Mississippi inmates spent 90 days or longer in jail before trial.

In another project that made use of open records, I requested data that showed a Mississippi university had an above-average number of terminations compared with other public colleges in the state. I spoke with 25 current and former Jackson State University employees, who described high stress and a hostile work environment at the HBCU.

I later reported the results of a private audit that showed a JSU administrator spent about $24,000 from foundation funds at casinos and on personal items, like cigarettes, meals and movie tickets. This story was the first time a reporter at The Clarion-Ledger obtained university foundation records, which are shielded from open records laws, and it was followed by a story about the same administrator, who received $157,000 from the university after his termination, although he was still repaying the foundation.

Collaboration has been central to some of my favorite investigative projects. At the Clarion-Ledger, politics editor Geoffrey Pender, reporter Kate Royals and I teamed up for “Public Office: Private Gain,” which examined what happens when politicians can legally spend campaign funds on themselves. Under Pender’s leadership, our series made an impact, spurring legislation to bar this practice, which one critic called “legalized bribery.”

One of our main goals at Big If True is to serve as a watchdog. So far, we’ve investigated issues with the civil legal system and strikes and other union activity in the journalism industry.