Gambit Weekly is very pleased to announce that writer Katy Reckdahl has been honored with a 2002 Casey Journalism Center Medal for Distinguished Coverage of Children and Family Issues. The awards, first presented by the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families in 1994, recognize distinguished coverage of children and families in the United States. Reckdahl received the top national honor for a series of articles on juvenile justice published in Gambit Weekly in 2001.

Judges’ comments on Katy’s series “Louisiana Juvenile Justice” include: “Reckdahl’s series of strong reports show that the juvenile justice system in Louisiana needs more accountability for how it treats young offenders. Her indefatigable reporting is the series’ strength. She uses case histories and numbers in addressing the questions of how best to handle juvenile offenders, and she gives a full and compelling report on the troubled Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth.”

This year, Reckdahl’s reporting on the topic of juvenile justice also earned her top honors from the national Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, as well as from state and local press associations.

The Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families is a non-partisan national resource for professional journalists who cover the lives of children and families in the United States, particularly the disadvantaged. CJC is a program of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and is funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. First-place winners will be honored at an awards luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 1, where they will each receive a Casey Medal and $1,000.

For more information call the Casey Center at (301) 699-5133, Gambit Weekly Editor Michael Tisserand at (504) 486-5900 ext 150, or Katy Reckdahl at (504) 527-0780, or visit the Casey Center Web site at www.casey.umd.edu.