Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.

Carol Smith explores the complexities of a failing mental health system, a dental death investigation and a story about the link between PTSD and brain damage.

Judges' comments: These are well written stories that reveal flawed systems of oversight and care, built around remarkably fleshed-out human examples of people struggling with serious mental illness, a National Guard soldier who returned from Iraq with traumatic brain injury, and patients who died in their dentists' offices. Smith combines a portraitist's eye with a beat reporter's nose for news.

Read Smith's work.

See the contest questionnaire about Smith's work.