Sun Sentinel wins first place in public service, journalist of the year at Society of Professional Journalists awards

The South Florida Sun Sentinel earned top honors at the Society of Professional Journalist’s Sunshine State Awards on Friday, including first place for public service and journalist of the year.

The Sun Sentinel’s investigation, “Innocence Sold,” won the James Batten Award for Public Service and was one of two finalists for the Gene Miller Award for Investigative Reporting.

The investigation is a four-part series and accompanying podcast, Felonious Florida, that uncovered how state failures contribute to child sex trafficking while the justice system retraumatizes victims. Hotels get away with thousands of violations of an anti-trafficking law, the state’s foster care system gives sex traffickers access to vulnerable children, the victims themselves are often treated as criminals.

Felonious Florida also won first place in the podcast category of the awards.

Since the investigation was published, state officials have promised to implement new measures to fight sex trafficking in hotels, protect victims who cooperate with law enforcement and do more to prevent trafficking of foster care youth.

Another Sun Sentinel investigation, 911 Call Center in Crisis, won first place in non-deadline reporting and was one of two finalists for the public servce award. That investigation revealed how Broward County’s 911 call centers are severely understaffed, costing first responders precious seconds and endangering residents’ lives. The Sun Sentinel discovered thousands of unanswered 911 calls, speaking with callers who never got the help they needed.

Meanwhile, Sun Sentinel education reporter Scott Travis won journalist of the year award, his second award in two months. In July, Travis had won the Paul Hansell Award at the Florida Society of News Editors journalism awards, one of the most prestigious awards in Florida journalism, for a series of investigative stories on the Broward school district.

His stories revealed the extreme steps the district took to keep the public and 50,000 potential victims, from learning about ransomware attacks that took place from November 2020 to March 2021.

Among the awards:

• Reporter Susannah Bryan won first place in profile reporting and third place in community beat reporting for her story “Gas Barge Gone”
• Reporter Scott Travis won first place in education reporting
• Photographer Amy Beth Bennett was a finalist for photojournalist of the year and won third place in breaking news photography for her work in “A mother’s anguish: School Shooting victims’ families speak out”
• Reporter Phillip Valys won first place in food writing
• Photographer Mike Stocker won first place in sports photography for his piece “Quarterback Nosedive”
• Columnist Dave Hyde won second place in sports commentary for his sports columns
• Reporter Rod Stafford Hagwood won second place in arts commentary for his Broadway tour reviews
• Reporter Rafael Olmeda won third place in crime and courts reporting
• Photographers Amy Beth Bennett, Mike Stocker & Joe Cavaretta won third place for their series “Sentencing the Parkland school shooter: The quest for justice”
• Photographer Carline Jean won second place in feature photography for her work on the Rubin Stacy lynching memorial