Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism

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Beyond The Bachelor’s: First Massachusetts In-Prison Graduate Program Launches

Emerson College expands higher education at MCI-Norfolk, offering incarcerated scholars a path to graduate credentials and career opportunities

JEAN TROUNSTINE

Charlie Rosario earned his BA behind bars in 2022. As he explained in a recent interview, he was part of the first Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) college cohort, at the time located at MCI-Concord, which closed in 2024.…

ABOUT

The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism supports the development and production of independent news—here at BINJ.News, our weekly magazine covering Boston and environs, and by syndicating our award-winning reporting to news outlets around Massachusetts and the nation.

BINJ achieves its mission by: providing organizational support to community publications; running reporting collaborations and civic engagement initiatives; training promising journalists; and producing bold independent journalism.

LATEST NEWS

Editor’s Note: Have a DAF? BINJ Can Use Your Donation.

Donor-advised funds remain a largely untapped funding source for nonprofit journalism, but there’s an easy way that DAF donors can give to BINJ

JASON PRAMAS

A DAF, a donor-advised fund, is “a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals,” according to Wikipedia. Put another way, it’s a mini foundation that…

IndyMass: October 2, 2026

A roundup of recent articles from the Massachusetts independent press

JASON PRAMAS

Read on for some of the best recent articles by local independent news outlets around the Bay State! Includes IndyMass #69. ARTS Film Review: “NAZA” — A Documentary Against Willful Blindness The Arts Fuse (Somerville) A helpful look…

Can Question 7’s Zoning Reform Ease The Mass Housing Crisis?

The ballot initiative would allow single-family homes to be built on residential lots as small as 5,000 square feet. Developers and some progressive groups say that will help first-time buyers. But others aren’t convinced.

DYLAN VRINS

This story was originally published by The Shoestring. BINJ is collaborating with the Western Mass publication to cover this year's extraordinary nine ballot initiatives, so be sure to follow both of us for more articles on the other…

Prosecuted By The DA, Exonerated By DNA: Tommy Rosa’s Story Of Wrongful Incarceration In Mass

At one point in his decades-long fight for freedom, prosecutors declined to call on their own DNA expert whose findings skewed from their narrative

ANDREW QUEMERE

Thomas “Tommy” Rosa recalled the day he was called to the second floor of the Massachusetts prison where he was incarcerated. There, an officer asked whether he had a son named Jonathan. He did. “And like nothing, they…

The Invisible Registry: Why Mass Remains A National Outlier In Missing Persons Transparency

Lacking a public clearinghouse, the commonwealth leaves families without answers and law enforcement without oversight

AVANTI NAMBIAR

This is the second installment in a series on the shocking lack of standards around cases that involve missing children in Massachusetts. Read the first article here. On Nov. 6, 1992, 16-year-old Jamie Lusher went missing during a…

BINJ.NEWS IN YOUR INBOX

The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism produces bold investigative reporting that challenges powerful interests and lifts up the voices of marginalized people. BINJ publishes high-quality journalism by experienced reporters as well as talented and highly motivated college students whom we train and mentor. Our reporting and analysis fills the gaps left by the mainstream media in Greater Boston and throughout Massachusetts, focusing on prisons, policing, surveillance, housing, the environment, arts, media and other critical issues facing our city and state.