ProPublica Local Reporting Network partner Amy Silverman is the recipient of the 2020 Virg Hill Journalist of the Year Award, Arizona’s most prestigious journalism award. The honor given by the Arizona Press Club is named for Hill, a popular and witty political columnist and reporter for the Phoenix Gazette who died of a heart attack in 1969 while covering the state House of Representatives. The award goes to the writer or editor who, in the opinion of the judges, had the best portfolio of work during 2020.
Silverman, reporting for the Arizona Daily Star, wrote about how often Arizonans with disabilities are denied services they desperately need by the state Division of Developmental Disabilities, or DDD. Arizona had long enjoyed a reputation for having the best services in the country for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. But years of mismanagement, funding shortfalls and turnover at every level of the DDD resulted in a much different story. Stories in the “State of Denial” series revealed the demise of independent oversight committees designed to provide outside accountability, as well as the failure of the state to fulfill recommendations made by a governor’s task force on abuse and neglect of people with developmental disabilities.