Joseph Shapiro
Joseph Shapiro is a NPR News Investigations correspondent.
Shapiro's major investigative stories include his reports on the way rising court fines and fees create an unequal system of justice for the poor and the rise of "modern day debtors' prisons," the failure of colleges and universities to punish for on-campus sexual assaults, the epidemic of sexual assault of people with intellectual disabilities, the problems with solitary confinement, the inadequacy of civil rights laws designed to get the elderly and people with disabilities out of nursing homes, and the little-known profits involved in the production of medical products from donated human cadavers.
His "Child Cases" series, reported with PBS Frontline and ProPublica, found two dozen cases in the U.S. and Canada where parents and caregivers were charged with killing children, but the charges were later reversed or dropped. Since that series, a Texas man who was the focus of one story was released from prison. And in California, a woman who was the subject of another story had her sentence commuted.
Shapiro joined NPR in November 2001 and spent eight years covering health, aging, disability, and children's and family issues on the Science Desk. He reported on the health issues of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and helped start NPR's 2005 Impact of War series with reporting from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center. He covered stories from Hurricane Katrina to the debate over overhauling the nation's health care system.
Before coming to NPR, Shapiro spent 19 years at U.S. News & World Report, as a Senior Writer on social policy and served as the magazine's Rome bureau chief, White House correspondent, and congressional reporter.
Among honors for his investigative journalism, Shapiro has received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, George Foster Peabody Award, George Polk Award, Robert F. Kennedy Award, Edward R. Murrow Award, Sigma Delta Chi, IRE, Dart, Ruderman, and Gracie awards, and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Award.
Shapiro is the author of the award-winning book NO PITY: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement (Random House/Three Rivers Press), which is widely read in disability studies classes.
Shapiro studied long-term care and end-of-life issues as a participant in the yearlong 1997 Kaiser Media Fellowship in Health program. In 1990, he explored the changing world of people with disabilities as an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow.
Shapiro attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Carleton College. He's a native of Washington, DC, and lives there now with his family.
-
Gallaudet University for deaf students has announced a new president, Jane Fernandes. In the 18 years since the school selected its last president, much has changed for deaf people. Students know they must struggle to make their way in both the deaf and the hearing world, but technology is increasingly helping them.
-
In 1988, students at Gallaudet locked the gates of the Washington D.C. campus in protest of the university's new, hearing president. The takeover ended with appointment of a popular, deaf dean, I. King Jordan, to the post. Now, Jordan is leaving. His legacy: a school that's made communication easy for a culture that's all too often isolated.
-
In Cleveland, an experiment is under way to find new ways to give people purpose and enjoyment as they reach retirement age. But as Americans live longer, views on what retirement means are slow to change. -
Tammy Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in a 2004 attack in Iraq, is running for the Illinois House seat occupied by retiring GOP Rep. Henry Hyde. Duckworth comes from a long line of veterans with serious war injuries who wind up in politics. -
More than a million kids provide care for a sick or disabled family member in the United States. Sickness and caregiving can rip open the rawest emotions between children and parents, but the experience can also make families stronger. -
Clarice Morant has been taking care of her sister for more than 20 years, and her brother for six. It's a natural role for a big sister, even if in this case, the big sister is 101. -
A new study shows that 35 percent of troops returning from Iraq are seeking help for mental-health issues. Most of the problems are easily treatable, but more than one in 10 soldiers are diagnosed with a serious mental illness such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or depression.
-
Anyone who's ever helped an elderly family member knows it can be hard to get good health care for someone who's sick and frail. In Washington, D.C., some doctors are trying to make health care work better by reviving what was once a common part of a doctor's practice -- the house call.
-
More than 1,200 delegates are attending this week's White House Conference on Aging. Past conferences have led to major social change, including the creation of Medicare and Meals on Wheels. We look at what seniors are saying about the president's absence this year and other issues at the conference.
-
To make a difference, the latest White House Conference on Aging must address a big demographic change. On Jan. 1, the first of more than 75 million baby boomers will begin turning 60.
