Ryan E. Little

Ryan Little is an award-winning data journalist and the data editor at The Baltimore Banner. He leads a team of reporters who use computational tools to tell powerful stories about the people and experiences found in large data sets.

His work analyzing large datasets and scraping the web has won multiple national awards and led to at least one Department of Justice investigation.

ProPublica •

How a Secret Rent Algorithm Pushes Rents Higher

On a summer day last year, a group of real estate tech executives gathered at a conference hall in Nashville to boast about one of their company’s signature products: software that uses a mysterious algorithm to help landlords push the highest possible rents on tenants.



“Never before have we seen these numbers,” said Jay Parsons, a vice president of RealPage, as conventiongoers wandered by. Apartment rents had recently shot up by as much as 14.5%, he said in a...
Mother Jones •

Why is a mother serving more time than the man who abused her daughter?

When my colleague Ryan Little and I conducted a groundbreaking review of the state’s court records, we identified hundreds of people who were charged under the law since 2009, when a new version of the statute went into effect.
While the language of these laws refers to parents, prosecutors overwhelmingly target mothers, not fathers. Since 2009, at least 90 percent of the people incarcerated for the offense in Oklahoma were women.
Mother Jones •

An obscure law is sending Oklahoma mothers to prison in droves. We reviewed 1.5 million cases to learn more.

In Oklahoma, failure to protect is the only child abuse charge levied predominantly against women, and it is disproportionately charged against women of color. People charged with the crime there are less likely to have a previous felony record than defendants in firsthand child abuse cases—a sign of just how much more dangerous abusers are than those accused of failing to stand in the way of their abuse. Since 2009, when the latest version of the state’s law went into effect, at least 139 women have been imprisoned solely for failure-to-protect charges. At least 55 are still incarcerated.
The Baltimore Banner •

Inside the eviction epicenter of Anne Arundel County

At The Forest apartment complex in Glen Burnie, the third Thursday of the month is a date that residents dread.It’s eviction day: the culmination of a monthly cycle of anxiety for many tenants of the sprawling 954-unit brick apartment complex — a hotbed of Maryland’s eviction crisis.Recent third Thursdays have found Leshell Wallace on the precipice of eviction, scrambling to pay the $1,250 monthly rent for her two-bedroom apartment. It’s among the cheapest in Glen Burnie — in Anne Arundel County...
The Baltimore Banner •

What caused a 33% drop in gun violence in West Baltimore last year? We analyzed it

Want a condensed version of this analysis? Here are nine charts that help explain the drop in shootings in West Baltimore.Last month, as Baltimore breached 300 homicides for the eighth year in a row, the city’s public safety leaders emphasized a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year: a dramatic drop in shootings in one of the most violent parts of town.The 33% reduction in homicides and nonfatal shootings in the Western District follows Mayor Brandon Scott’s revival of a crime prevention appro...
Mother Jones •

We uncovered the impact of GOP voting restrictions in one key state. It's staggering.

A new data analysis by Mother Jones shows that the number of voters disenfranchised by rejected mail ballot applications skyrocketed after the GOP-controlled legislature passed sweeping new restrictions on mail voting last year. The law enacted in March 2021 shortened the time people have to request and return mail ballots, prohibited election officials from sending such applications to all voters, added new ID requirements, and dramatically curtailed the use of ballot drop boxes, among other changes.
During municipal elections in November, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and ultimately not vote as a result—than in 2020. If that same rejection rate were extrapolated to the 2020 race, more than 38,000 votes would not have been cast in a presidential contest decided by just over 11,000 votes.
AP NEWS •

Cities try to arrest their way out of homeless problems

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In the nine years he has been homeless, Kenneth Shultz has spent one of every three nights in jail.

The 71-year-old retiree has been charged with trespassing 96 times, including after he fell asleep behind gas stations, outside office buildings and in a city park. His 1,034 days in jail have come with a crushing debt of $41,311 in court costs, fines and fees and an estimated taxpayer tab of nearly $50,000.

About

Ryan Little is an award-winning data journalist and the data editor at The Baltimore Banner. He leads a team of reporters who use computational tools to tell powerful stories about the people and experiences found in large data sets.

His work analyzing large datasets and scraping the web has won multiple national awards and led to at least one Department of Justice investigation.

Little is a dedicated mentor to aspiring data journalists and frequently speaks on the role of data in uncovering vital stories. He also teaches data journalism as an adjunct instructor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Previously he was the Roy W. Howard Investigative Fellow at Mother Jones. He has also worked at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, the Capital News Service and The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press and elsewhere.

“You can make anything by writing.”

C. S. Lewis