by Andrew Griffin
Summary
In early 2023, Alicia Ramirez began work on the project that would become an article titled “In Times of Crisis, The City of Blythe Stands United. This Time the Crisis is Existential.” The project followed a situation in the town of Blythe, CA, in which the local Chuckawalla Valley State Prison was being closed down by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The project’s goal was not only to investigate the impact and spread awareness about the situation through the reporting but also to help empower the city of Blythe to work directly for solutions or ways to mitigate the damage themselves. On May 25th, 2023, Alicia Ramirez published the story in The Riverside Record. While the city of Blythe was already motivated to fight against the state’s decision, the story gave them more fuel to start work on numerous projects to mitigate the potentially catastrophic impact of the prison’s closure.
Organization Background: The Riverside Record is an independent, donation-funded newspaper covering Riverside County, California. Founded by Alicia Ramirez, the paper is a member of LION Publishers and the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Snapshot
Project Goals
The investigative coverage of the closure of the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison was intended not only to help amplify the work being done by the residents of Blythe but also to ensure that there would always be someone watching what was happening and checking in on this ongoing situation.
Project Resources
The Riverside Record’s revenue consists almost entirely of individual donations of under $500. Since late 2022, the outlet has received two grants from the Institute for Nonprofit News worth $2,200 and a grant from the Google News Initiative for $20,000.
Tools & Technology
For the project, The Riverside Record hired a freelance photographer to handle the visual elements of the story so the writer could focus on the newsgathering process. To help share the story, The Riverside Record posted it on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Journalists and other news producers who found the story on these sites reshared it.
Impact
For this project, the impact is measured in a qualitative sense. The article functioned as a catalyst for engagement for Blythe, pulling together the community to work to either change the decision to close Chuckawalla Valley State Prison or mitigate the effects of the prison’s closure. One way this was achieved was through campaigns started by the city’s chamber of commerce, highlighting the coverage from The Riverside Record. Since the article’s publication, the city has partnered with Brown University professor John M. Eason to research how the prison’s closure would affect Blythe. According to Alicia Ramirez, it has helped the community continue its pursuit to keep the prison open and has helped the community recognize its own ability to be a voice for change. “By having all of this information in one place that folks could look, it really helped everyone to see the bigger picture,” said Ramirez. The Record’s ongoing coverage of the prison closure was cited in an April civil grand jury report about how the city plans to move forward in light of the closure and the impacts it will have on the city.
How it Happened
In December 2022, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced that it was planning to close the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, CA, by March 2025. Chuckawalla Valley State Prison is considered an important institution for Blythe, providing valuable revenue for several of the town’s institutions, such as:
- The Palo Verde Valley Transit Agency
- Palo Verde Hospital
- Palo Verde College
- Palo Verde Unified School District
If the prison were to close, the city would lose a major source of jobs and income, affecting every aspect of the town financially.
The Riverside Record had opened just two months before the CDCR announced the closure. Alicia Ramirez had seen an article reporting on the closure in the L.A. Times and was concerned that no one in the county had been talking about this potentially catastrophic issue. From there, Ramirez began talking to her first subjects for the story.
What Worked
1. Taking Part in Public Meetings
Traveling to Blythe to take part in a public community meeting greatly impacted the project’s success. By being present in the community, meeting its residents and listening to their opinions on the issue, she felt that she could connect more with the community and gain a deeper understanding of the situation and how it was impacting the residents of Blythe. By doing this, she allowed the community to shape the story into a more in-depth community profile than a piece about closure.
2. Research at the Local Library
By accessing the local library’s archive, which contains hundreds of historical documents, The Riverside Record could piece together the history of how the prison came to Blythe to frame the impact of the closure more effectively.
What Could Have Worked Better
1. Reaching Out to Larger Outlets
According to Alicia Ramirez, more effectively reaching out to larger news outlets to spread the story of what was happening in Blythe would have been beneficial as it would have allowed the story to be recognized on a wider level rather than keeping the story relatively contained to southern California. Ramirez contacted the CalMatters daily newsletter editor, who linked to The Record’s story a few days before publishing their own story about the prison. Ramirez wished she had reached out to other local media outlets to see if she could have gotten a more collaborative effort together to raise awareness of what was happening in Blythe
What Else You Should Know
According to Alicia Ramirez, the article remains The Riverside Record’s top-read story on the outlet’s website.
Learn More
To learn more, contact Alicia Ramirez by email or on Twitter. You can also check out the following links: