“Detained,” an immersive documentary from Emily Kassie that explores the rise and expansion of America’s immigration detention system—the world’s largest—has been nominated for the Peabody Award in the Public Service category. The prestigious annual award recognizes the best storytelling in broadcasting and digital media.
Published in partnership with the Guardian in September, “Detained” explores how a system designed to process new arrivals swelled from holding a little more than 2,000 people in 1979 to detaining over 52,000 people in a network of federal and private prisons and county jails. Blending video, data visualization, interactivity and text in a compelling design, the story takes viewers on a 40-year journey that begins with a makeshift response to a humanitarian crisis, and ends with the emergence of the world’s largest immigrant detention system.
“Unbelievable,” the Netflix series based on our Pulitzer Prize-winning original reporting with ProPublica and “This American Life,” was also honored with a nomination for the Peabody Award in the Entertainment category.
The George Foster Peabody Awards were first established in 1941, recognizing excellence in radio programming released during the previous year. Since then, the Peabody Awards have steadily grown to include a wide range of broadcasting, including television, cable, streaming network programs and digital journalism. See the list of all of this year’s nominees for the Peabody Awards.
