Jacob Geanous is a reporter on the criminal justice beat. He writes stories about police, prosecutors, the courts, corrections and more in Honolulu.

Previously, Jacob was working on the Documenting COVID-19 project for the Brown Institute, where he wrote pandemic-related stories for THE CITY in New York, WWNO in New Orleans, the Chicago Sun-Times, and The Kansas City Star.

Jacob was also a Stabile Investigative Fellow at Columbia Journalism School in New York City where he published stories on uncounted coronavirus deaths in NYC jails, which sparked a city inquiry, and Hart Island, the city’s mass grave site. Before he worked in journalism, Jacob earned a degree in criminal justice from Mercyhurst North East.

His first journalism job was at The Boston Globe, where he worked for more than a year and a half before joining the Boston Guardian. He later moved to New York City to become an American correspondent for Metro.co.uk.

Jacob was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania so he is used to beaches, just not the waves. Catch him in the water trying to teach himself how to surf.

Jacob welcomes story ideas and anonymous tips at jgeanous@civilbeat.org. You can follow him on Twitter @jacob_geanous.