For the second time, WPLN’s senior criminal justice reporter Paige Pfleger has been selected to partner with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network for a year-long investigative journalism fellowship.
Pfleger will deepen her reporting about Tennessee’s treatment of vulnerable children in juvenile justice facilities.
“There’s an urgent need for more reporting on the systems meant to protect kids,” said WPLN News Director Tony Gonzalez. “This partnership will put substantial time and resources into understanding the complexities and highlighting the lived experiences of kids and their families.”
Pfleger investigated gun violence and juvenile justice as a fellow with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in 2023, and her investigation into domestic violence and firearms dispossession won Edward R. Murrow and Public Media Journalists Association awards and was a finalist for the Livingston Award and an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award.
Her story about a rural domestic violence court was featured by Theater of War and sparked changes for victims in courtrooms across Tennessee. Pfleger also partnered with ProPublica’s Aliyya Swaby to help report stories about children being expelled and arrested in Tennessee schools, which was recognized by the Education Writers Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.
In recognition of this journalism, WPLN’s criminal justice reporting in 2026 has also been awarded grants from the Public Welfare Foundation and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
The Public Welfare Foundation invests in nonprofits advancing fundamental fairness for all, through justice approaches that are community-led, restorative, and rooted in racial equity. The Fund for Investigative Journalism awards grants to independent news organizations that produce high-quality, unbiased, and nonpartisan investigative stories.
Local Reporting Network
ProPublica launched the Local Reporting Network at the beginning of 2018 to boost investigative journalism in local newsrooms.
The new fellowship class includes Pfleger, as well as Luis Valentín of Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Jenna Carlesso of the Connecticut Mirror, Jacob Margolis of LAist, and Willoughby Mariano of WBUR. These reporting projects are supported by a generous grant from the Abrams Foundation.
The new fellowship extends collaborations between ProPublica and WPLN News, which includes the Pulitzer Prize-nominated series investigating Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system.
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