Kelan was a staff writer for Salt Lake City Weekly, where he wrote about immigration, economic development and state and local politics. Before that, in Texas, he covered the Brazos County courthouse for the Bryan-College Station Eagle, where he won a 2018 Texas Associated Press Managing Editors first-place feature writing award for his story on how a 35-year-old cold case still affects the community. He was a fellow at City Bureau in Chicago, where he produced an audio documentary about police misconduct settlements. He majored in psychology at University of Pittsburgh and graduated with an M.S. from Northwestern University, where he was an Alfred Balk scholarship recipient.
Beat: Mental health and criminal justice
Connecticut was recently rocked by a scandal in which 37 staff members were accused of systematically abusing a patient at Whiting Forensic Hospital, the state’s behavioral health facility that specializes in providing inpatient services to individuals involved in the criminal justice system. This scandal has raised countless questions about the intersection of mental health and criminal justice in Connecticut. Kelan is paired with a data editor, supported by the Connecticut Mirror’s health care and justice reporters, to explore the intersection of mental health and criminal justice. This work informs conversations about potential systems changes among policy-makers, advocates, people living at the intersection of mental health and criminal justice and Connecticut residents at large.