Alysia Santo

Alysia Santo, at only twenty five, has the somewhat intimidating yet collected and welcoming presence that a can only give a young journalist anxiety about their future and lack of experience. Alysia recently received her masters from Columbia’s graduate Journalism school and is currently a staff writer for the Marshall Project.

Her most recent project was a story on Rikers Island, published in New York Magazine in June. Explaining that they had eight people on the story, with multiple reporters and a design team for the multimedia, interactive web page.

By growing up near Albany, Alysia has had a greater awareness of the prison system, in just her immediate surroundings. Though in just talking with her about her reporting process, it was evident that Alysia has a genuine interest in the sociological and political aspects of the prison system.

She expressed her care for the inmates whom she interviewed in this story, and still maintains contact with them. A student commented on these personal vignettes, observing how genuine they feel. Alysia stressed the importance of asking specifics, in these kind of interviews. Each interview was about an hour long, though she went back multiple times.

“People want to talk about themselves, you just have to ask them.”

Prior to working with The Marshall Project, Alysia spent a year doing on the ground reporting in Albany, though she finds this work to be much more fulfilling in terms of her personal journalistic career.