DoNY Editor Wins Prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award

Kelly Virella

ominion of New York editor Kelly Virella has won her third national journalism award for her  May 2011 story about the sexual abuse of New York State’s female prisoners by prison staff. The Society of Professional Journalist Awarded her the Sigma Delta Chi award for the best magazine investigative reporting in a regional magazine. The award is one of America’s premiere journalism prizes. Also honored in the magazine category were reporters from The New Yorker, The Chicago Reporter — where Virella once worked — and the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, which is a supporter of DoNY’s investigative journalism.

Before winning the Sigma Delta Chi Award for her article, Virella won the PASS Award from the National Center on Crime and Delinquency. She also won second place in the national 2012 John Jay College/H.F. Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Awards. Virella produced the article during her tenure as the Deputy Editor of City Limits magazine, the New York City magazine and website where she worked before starting DoNY. Her 15,000-word investigation found that some prison staff rape prisoners, even conceiving children with them, but never get prosecuted for the crime or lose their jobs. The Fund for Investigative Journalism supported Virella’s work with a grant that subsidized the expenses.

At DoNY Virella and her team of contributors are also producing in-depth journalism. Each week, we release one long magazine style narrative that profiles, investigates or satirizes a thinker, a problem or an idea. Here’s what we’ve done so far. Be sure to share your feedback and ideas for improvement in the comment section.