For many years, she investigated a prison in Bloemfontein run by global security firm G4S. She wrote about the ongoing torture and abuse at that prison, for national and international media. She has also written about court delays, remand detention, wrongful convictions and police brutality in South Africa. Hopkins won the Webber Wentzel Legal Journalist of the Year Award in 2012 and 2014. In 2015, she received an honourable mention in the international Anthony Lewis Prize for Exceptional Rule of Law Journalism. In 2016, she was awarded the inaugural Sylvester Stein reporting fellowship.