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particularly good at those ways of giving. In the last two paragraphs Miranda makes his
2
claim of policy: it’s time to rethink the definition of philanthropy in the United States to
include the myriad ways people of all backgrounds give. It’s important, he says, for us to
“push back on the idea that Americans today are less generous than we once were”
(par. 12). You’ll notice that Miranda uses effective evidence to support his claims, and
Argument
you can see here how his claims of value and fact lay the groundwork for his call to
action or claim of policy.

activity Analyzing Claims of Fact, Value, and Policy
The following article, published in the Washington Post in 2021, was written by DeAnna
Hoskins and Zoë Towns. Both authors work with criminal justice reform organizations:
Hoskins is president of JustLeadershipUSA, and Towns is president of Criminal Justice
Reform at FWD.us. Read the text carefully, and identify the claims of fact, value, and
policy. How do the authors use the three types of claims to argue for changes in how we
talk about criminal justice?

How the Language of Criminal Justice Inflicts Lasting Harm

DeAnna Hoskins and Zoë Towns
These days there is more reporting on the “child” or “person. ” These carceral labels com-
harms of mass incarceration and mass crimi- pound punishment by reducing people to their
nalization than ever before. More journalists worst moments, codifying stigma and haunting
are on these beats. Stories about conditions in people for years after sentences are served.
police stations, jails and prisons are getting Incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and
more space on the page. Entire journalism convicted people have been arguing for years
outlets are dedicated to critically tracking the that not only are such labels painful for them
criminal justice system. individually — they are also not “neutral,”
Yet when we scroll through our news feeds and they make more freedom less possible.
and Twitter, or turn on the radio or news at Now we have research to back up what we’ve
night — only to hear important criminal justice presumed.
stories using dehumanizing labels to describe Two national studies of a total of nearly 5
the subjects at the heart of them — it feels as if 3,000 people, conducted by the bipartisan
our work to build a safe and just world is only policy group FWD.us (where one of us works)
getting harder. and the polling firm Benenson Strategy
For too long, too many of us have accepted Group, found that those surveyed were
and reproduced the “official” jargon of the U.S. significantly more likely to describe people
criminal justice system. Designed to desensitize, in negative terms and make dehumanizing
terms such as “felon,” “convict,” “offender” and associations — considering a person “dangerous, ”
“criminal” replace names and other descrip- for instance — when they were defined by
tions, such as “woman,” “daughter,” “father,” labels such as “felon” and “habitual offender.”
66

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