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In God’s Name

Alexandra Zayas

Tampa Bay Times

  • 2013 |
  • Article |
  • LIVINGSTON AWARD |
  • LOCAL REPORTING |
  • WINNER |

Zaya’s one-year investigation uncovered corporal abuse of children in unlicensed religious group homes. Zayas reported on a 1984 Florida law that permits church run teen homes to operate without state oversight and exempts them from state laws on corporal punishment. She uncovered practices that could be called torture: children forcibly pinned to the ground for hours, placed in solitary confinement for days and made to stand still until urinating on themselves. 

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