Ruth Hopkins

Ruth Hopkins is an award-winning investigative journalist working for the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg. She has written about private prisons, court delays, remand detention, wrongful convictions and police brutality in South Africa. In 2016, she was awarded the Sylvester Stein reporting fellowship to write about criminal justice issues in the U.S., comparing them to the South African context.

Stories By Ruth Hopkins

Crime & Punishment

“Those Prisoners Had to Feel Who Was Boss. And We Made Them Feel.”

Story by Ruth Hopkins | August 3, 2017

I broke the story on a private prison in South Africa where guards inflicted horrendous abuse. But to really understand what happened, I had to talk to the torturers themselves.

Hidden HistoryIdentity

I Met with Martin Luther King Minutes Before He Was Murdered

Story by John Burl Smith, as told to Ruth Hopkins | April 4, 2017

He was the only man with the power to unite my militant black power group and his civil rights movement. Then, 49 years ago today, a single bullet changed history.

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