From Nieman Lab For the past year, Beryl C.D. Lipton has been investigating the private prison system in the United States. She’s a reporter for MuckRock, a news site that covers government transparency issues and also helps its users access government documents.
Lipton has filed about 1,000 Freedom of Information Act requests, and she plans to visit some prisons to continue her reporting.
But between travel costs and fees for records requests, the type of reporting that Lipton is doing is expensive. And readers who are interested in following her work may have difficulty keeping track of all the different requests she’s made and documents she’s uncovered.
To address these concerns, MuckRock plans to debut two new features on Thursday that will make it easier for users to follow specific stories and contribute to reporting costs.