August 29, 2023: Arlington County Detention Facility, Community Readiness Unit (CRU). “An editorial is an opinionated news story. Editorials are designed to persuade readers to take a particular position, vote a particular way or view a situation in a specific way.” That was the assignment to our 15 writers in the CRU class at the Arlington County Detention Facility. The first part was pretty easy – identify your issue and your position and three facts to support it. Then came the hard part: What is the opposing position? That’s hard for any of us, right? Most of us entrench ourselves in our position and typically seek out facts that justify that.

Our 15 writers were rightfully proud of themselves for putting themselves in the other person’s shoes and wanted to share their work with you. We were especially interested in those opinions around the carceral system, and the viewpoint of those on the inside.

Click here to read the submissions!