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AMNA NAWAZ: Now: how a
criminal justice reporter is
using her own background to

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build trust with men and women
behind bars and to highlight
conditions inside prisons.

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Special correspondent
Christopher Booker
reports from Texas as part

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of our ongoing series
Searching For Justice.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: In Austin,
Texas, it's a night to celebrate
investigative journalism.

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KERI BLAKINGER, The Marshall
Project: Sometimes, especially
in a state like Texas,

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it is those investigative
journalists that are
the only meaningful
oversight that exists.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: And
a chance to hear from a
rising star in the world

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of criminal justice reporting,
38-year-old Keri Blakinger.

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KERI BLAKINGER: That's four
Texas prisoners who have died
in fires in the past year. And

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we would know about none
of them if it weren't for
investigative journalism and

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brave sources who come
forward and take risks
to share things with us.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER:
Blakinger covers prisons
for The Marshall Project,

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a nonprofit news organization
that focuses on the criminal

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justice system. Her reporting
has led to real change
for people serving time.

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In 2019, her examination of
the conditions inside women's
prisons helped The Washington

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Post win a National
Magazine Award. And this
2018 investigation into
prison dental care for

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The Houston Chronicle
spurred Texas officials to
start providing dentures
to incarcerated people.

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KERI BLAKINGER: I didn't
think that was possible.
I didn't think that

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my reporting would actually
have that much impact.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But,
in 2010, it was Blakinger's
own story that was making

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headlines. While a senior at
Cornell University, in the midst
of a nine-year drug addiction,

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Blakinger was arrested
in Ithaca, New York, with
about six ounces of heroin.

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KERI BLAKINGER: It almost
feels like that day was
a different person. Like,

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I remember it, obviously,
in the first person,
but, at this point,

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it doesn't even feel like
it was still me anymore.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Like
a character, almost?

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KERI BLAKINGER: Yes.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER:
Blakinger was kicked out
of Cornell and convicted

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of criminal possession of
a controlled substance.

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Did the threat of arrest
or prison ever enter your
mind while you were using?

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KERI BLAKINGER: No, I
think that, fundamentally,
in order to do something
as dangerous as shooting

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up heroin every day, you have
to believe that odds don't apply
to you, that you're not the

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person who's going to get
arrested, that you're not
the person who's going
to overdose and die.

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And in order to maintain
in an addiction,

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you have to believe that
these eventualities are
not going to happen.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Blakinger
says she first began
using drugs as a teenager,

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growing up in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, where she
excelled in school and was

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a competitive figure
skater with dreams of
making it to the Olympics.

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KERI BLAKINGER: I think I
definitely had an intense and
obsessive personality. Still

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do. But I think that a
sport like skating can
draw it out in someone.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: How so?

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KERI BLAKINGER: The
persistence, like to an
almost unhealthy degree,

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that success in competitive
skating requires is
kind of mind-blowing.

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And I started working on a
double axel in sixth grade. So,

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every day from the beginning
of sixth grade to the
beginning of ninth grade,

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I was failing hundreds of
times at the same thing. And I
think about how that amount of

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failure every day through all of
middle school must necessarily
sort of shape your personality.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: By high
school, Blakinger says she was
struggling with depression and

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an eating disorder. Then,
at 17, she split with
her skating partner, and
she started to unravel.

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KERI BLAKINGER: When
I didn't have this one
thing to be fulfilled by,

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to pour my soul into, I just
went from being depressed to
very actively wanting to die.

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And I went from, like, I think
I smoked pot once, did ecstasy
once, and went right to heroin.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER:
Blakinger wound up homeless,

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often selling drugs and sex
to support her addiction.

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After her arrest in 2010, she
spent nearly two years behind
bars. She details all of this in

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her brutally honest memoir,
"Corrections in Ink," which was
published earlier this year.

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KERI BLAKINGER: I realized
that if I was telling
the story first, I could
tell it on my own terms.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Throughout
the book, though, you
make reference to how your

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circumstances behind bars
could have been worse. How
could they have been worse?

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KERI BLAKINGER: I think that
my entire interaction with the

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criminal legal system would
have gone very differently
if I were a person of color.

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And you can see that in
almost every stage of the
process. I think that I
would have gone into that

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initial arrest with probably a
longer criminal record even for
the same behaviors. But then,

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when you get in, statistically,
people of color are more likely
to be put in solitary. That

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makes it harder to
maintain ties with your
family that can help you
reintegrate when you get out.

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And then, when you do get
out after, having been
sentenced to more time and

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doing more of that time, if you
are a person of color, you're
coming back into dealing with

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all of the systemic racism
that already exists in the
world outside of prison.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: While
locked up, Blakinger was

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able to kick her addiction,
but she says it wasn't
because she was incarcerated.

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KERI BLAKINGER: Prisons
are drenched with drugs.

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When I got to prison, I
had someone who in the

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first week told me they
could get me heroin and
a needle if I wanted.

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But by the time that I did
get arrested, I was ready
to do something different,

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and that didn't have
anything to do with prison.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER:
In 2012, Blakinger was
released, and, shortly
thereafter, started writing

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for the local Ithaca
paper. Two years later,
she graduated from Cornell
with a degree in English.

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But her big break came in
2016, when she was hired
by The Houston Chronicle.

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NANCY BARNES, Former
Executive Editor, The Houston
Chronicle: She was just

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the hardest-working person in
the newsroom, probably because
she wanted to prove herself.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Nancy Barnes
is the paper's former executive
editor. She says Blakinger

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started as a general
assignment reporter,
but soon began covering
the Texas prison system.

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NANCY BARNES: She understood
what it felt like to
live in that world,

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and she wanted to shine a
light on that for others.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER:
That personal experience
remains a central focus
of Blakinger's work,

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says Susan Chira, who
is the editor in chief
at The Marshall Project.

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SUSAN CHIRA, Editor in
Chief, The Marshall Project:
Just to give one example,

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in very early March of
2020, before lockdowns in
New York City, Keri said,

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you can't socially
isolate in prison or jail.

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And so, on March 6, she and
a colleague wrote a piece
about this that I think was

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the first to make the
point that COVID would be
particularly disruptive
for incarcerated people.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: But
Blakinger's good friend
and former colleague at
The Houston Chronicle,

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Chris Tomlinson says, because
of her past, her work is
often under intense scrutiny.

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CHRIS TOMLINSON, The
Houston Chronicle: People
are going to try to dismiss

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her. They're going to try
to say, oh, we can't believe
her because she is a felon.

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And, for her, that means
doubling down on accuracy.
She over-reports everything.

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KERI BLAKINGER: But it
just doesn't matter if the
judge withdraws the date
and no one appeals it.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: Today,
Blakinger often visits

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prisons across the
country. And she's done
dozens of interviews
with men on death row.

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KERI BLAKINGER: This was
from John Ramirez, a man

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who was executed in Texas.
He sent me this, I don't
know, a year or two ago.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: She is
also constantly receiving mail,
usually from grateful prisoners,

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who pass along everything from
holiday cards to story tips.

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KERI BLAKINGER: Not every story
that I write is going to have
impact or make a difference,

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but I can tell their
stories, at a bare minimum.

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And that means something
to people who are behind
bars, to people who
otherwise don't have voices.

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CHRISTOPHER BOOKER: For the
"PBS NewsHour," I'm Christopher
Booker in Austin, Texas.