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.
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The breakout song from Disney's Frozen has inspired many marginalized groups — but its message of rejecting stigma holds special resonance for disabled people and their families. -
One of the most enduring pieces of legislation signed by former President George H.W. Bush, who died on Friday at the age of 94, is the American Disabilities Act, which he signed into law in 1990.
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Prison rules created to control men often don't work well for women, who come with different histories and experiences. "Gender-responsive corrections" aims to treat women based on these differences. -
When someone in prison breaks a rule, there's punishment. But discipline in prison treats women more harshly. In an NPR investigation, we look at how one state, Iowa, is trying to change the system.
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Data from 15 states reveal that female inmates are disciplined at higher rates than men for smaller infractions of prison rules — often with harsh consequences. -
A nationwide program helps parents of children with developmental disabilities — and people with disabilities themselves — advocate for their rights, from the school yard to Congress. -
An NPR investigation found people with intellectual disabilities have one of the nation's highest rates of sexual assault. Now states, communities and advocates are proposing changes to prevent abuse. -
In the final piece of NPR's series on the sexual assault epidemic against people with intellectual disabilities, we hear from victims themselves about how these experiences shape their lives. -
NPR obtained data from the United States Department of Justice that shows adults with intellectual disabilities suffer from an epidemic of sexual assault. Many keep their sexual assaults a secret, and it can isolate them, telling NPR they worry it proves they are not competent to live and work independently.
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Two psychologists both have a rare specialty: counseling sexual assault survivors who have intellectual disabilities. The stories of sexual violence in their clients' lives have striking similarities.
