It seems Brown had been quietly dropping in on sheriffs and county officials around the state to gauge the effectiveness of one of the signature achievements of his latest tenure as governor: a law that reduces California's prison population by sentencing lower-level offenders to county jails.
The governor's office almost never announced the visits ahead of time, and he rarely spoke publicly afterward so reporters could assess how the visits went. Verdin contacted the governor's office to find out why they hadn't been listed on Brown's official schedule. Brown's spokesman told him it did not need to be because such visits with public officials were 「private,」 and that the official photographs distributed by the governor's staff via Twitter would suffice for public disclosure.
Reporter Don Thompson has been aggressively covering prison realignment as part of his statehouse beat, resulting in a number of other newsbreaks and AP exclusives. In the seemingly innocuous local news item, Verdin and Thompson saw an opportunity for more accountability journalism.
Thompson began by requesting the list of counties Brown had visited. Not wanting the publicity of a formal public records request, the governor's office complied, and Thompson began making calls to sheriff's departments and county supervisors on the list. Over several weeks, he contacted half the counties Brown had visited, a representative sample that included urban and rural, coastal and inland.
Across the spectrum, the message was consistent: Local officials said they needed more money and that the governor had not yet followed through on his statements and promises. Two of them said Brown's office had not gotten back to them on concerns they had raised: 「I haven't heard a thing,」 said one local official.
Thompson's reporting showed that the statements Brown was making in public _ that 「realignment is working」? _ contradicted what he was hearing from county officials.
Additionally, Thompson got an advance look at data showing the jail population for all of California's 58 counties, before and after realignment, before they were released publicly. That chart moved in advance so members could localize the story if they wished.
Several major California dailies put Thompson's story on their front pages, including The Fresno Bee and Santa Barbara News-Press. 「The advance notice on that story was great,」 said Santa Maria Times Editor Marga Cooley, whose newspaper ran it across the top of Sunday's A1 with a localized sidebar. 「The story was timely and of significant interest in our area.」
Photographer Rich Pedroncelli also was able to gain access to a jail in one of the counties Brown had visited, and the package ran with a chart showing the inmate population before and after the realignment law in all 58 counties.
Two days after the story ran, the moderator cited Thompson's reporting during a public policy forum on prisons. One of the panelists, state Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, evoked Brown's 「it's working」 quote by saying 「It depends on your definition of working, I guess.」
For striking a blow for transparency, holding the governor to account for his misleading statements on an an important accomplishment of his administration, and advancing AP's efforts to share data with members so they can localize our state- and nation-level reporting, Thompson wins this week's $300 Best of the States award.