George Pawlaczyk worked as an investigative reporter at the Belleville News Democrat for 24 years covering deficiencies in Illinois state agencies and social justice issues. In 2010 he won a George Polk Award for coverage of extended solitary confinement of mentally ill prisoners at the now-closed Tamms Correctional Center and in 2007 a Robert F. Kennedy Award for a series on failures at Illinois DCFS to protect children. Both awards were won with his former reporting partner Beth Hundsdorfer.
