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Criminal Justice New York State

Help Us Investigate Conviction Integrity Units in New York

Our investigation into conviction integrity units reveals that they reinforce a broken system. Help us expand on this reporting.

Willow Higgins, Ryan Kost, Curtis Brodner, Oishika Neogi and Alex Arriaga   ·   January 13, 2026
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Help us carry on our investigation into the conviction integrity units that were meant to fix a broken system, but in many cases, reinforced it. | Leor Stylar
Read the rest of our series on conviction integrity units in New York state.

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New York Focus and Columbia Journalism Investigations are excited to collaborate with and support local newsrooms across the state examining New York’s conviction integrity units. Over the last year, our Innocence Ignored investigative series has demonstrated the ways that conviction integrity units — special units within District Attorney’s offices — uphold the broken system they were meant to fix, and leave people with wrongful conviction cases languishing in prison.

In addition to the published series, reporters have compiled databases using public records to support journalists and researchers in expanding on their reporting. The databases include:

The CIU Database

New York Focus and CJI used FOIL requests, interviews with staff, and publicly available records to gather and document standardized information for all 17 county units in New York, including:

  • Current and founding DAs

  • Key staff

  • Application and exoneration statistics

  • Policies and structures

  • Transparency practices

The CIU “Missed Cases” Database

We identified cases in which a CIU did not act on a wrongful conviction claim, but a court later overturned the conviction.

  • The database draws on the National Registry of Exonerations and shoe leather reporting to identify exonerees.

  • Reporters spoke with defense attorneys to determine which cases involved a CIU that declined to support exoneration.

The CIU Exoneree Database

This database uses the National Registry of Exonerations to examine 93 exonerees whose convictions were overturned with CIU backing in New York.

  • Reporters identified more than 40 cases that likely involved prosecutorial misconduct

  • The spreadsheet includes context on each case using archival research and clip searches.

  • Watch our Zoom webinar, where reporters discuss their toolkit and how to use it:

Visit our full media toolkit here. 

This document is a roadmap to the project. In it, you’ll find:

  • A description of our project

  • A summary of our key findings

  • The details of our databases, their methodology, and how to make the most of them

  • A breakdown of our public records

  • Tips on how to dig into the conviction integrity unit in your area

If you have any questions, please contact New York Focus Audience Engagement Editor Alex Arriaga at alex@nysfocus.com.


BEFORE YOU GO, consider: If not for the article you just read, would the information in it be public?

Or would it remain hidden — buried within the confines of New York’s sprawling criminal-legal apparatus?

I started working at New York Focus in 2022, not long after the outlet launched. Since that time, our reporters and editors have been vigorously scrutinizing every facet of the Empire State’s criminal justice institutions, investigating power players and the impact of policy on state prisons, county jails, and local police and courts — always with an eye toward what it means for people involved in the system.

That system works hard to make those people invisible, and it shields those at the top from scrutiny. And without rigorous, resource-intensive journalism, it would all operate with significantly more impunity.

Only a handful of journalists do this type of work in New York. In the last decades, the number of local news outlets in the state has nearly halved, making our coverage all the more critical. Our criminal justice reporting has been cited in lawsuits, spurred legislation, and led to the rescission of statewide policies. With your help, we can continue to do this work, and go even deeper: We have endless ideas for more ambitious projects and harder hitting investigations. But we need your help.

As a small, nonprofit outlet, we rely on our readers to support our journalism. If you’re able, please consider supporting us with a one-time or monthly gift. We so appreciate your help.

Here’s to a more just, more transparent New York.

Chris Gelardi
Justice Bureau Chief
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Willow Higgins is a New York City-based reporter who investigates criminal justice and social issues. Her work appears in New York Focus, Texas Monthly, the Texas Observer and the Austin Monitor.
More by Willow Higgins
Ryan Kost is an investigative reporter based in New York City focusing on courts and the criminal justice system. He has been a staff writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian and The Associated Press. His work has also appeared in The… more
More by Ryan Kost
Curtis Brodner is a New York City-based reporter covering criminal justice, housing and metro news. His work has appeared in Hell Gate, Hyperallergic and 1010 WINS.
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Oishika Neogi is a New York-based investigative reporter covering the criminal justice system, prisons and other social issues. She formerly worked at an investigative outlet in New Delhi, and collaborated with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Forbidden Stories, Al Jazeera… more
More by
A photo of Alex Arriaga.
Alex Arriaga is the audience engagement editor at New York Focus, where she leads the organization’s strategy to reach audiences throughout the state. She was previously an engagement reporter at The Marshall Project, where she reported on prisons and jails with a specialization… more
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