Clinton’s “Tough on Crime” Approach

When Bill Clinton ran four years later, he was so determined to avoid Dukakis’ fate that in late January 1992, with the Iowa caucuses only days away, he flew back to Arkansas to preside over the execution of Ricky Ray Rector, a man so mentally impaired that during his last meal he asked guards to save his pecan pie for “later.” Upon becoming president, Clinton signed a crime bill that rescinded the right of inmates to receive Pell Grants for university education, created “boot camps” for delinquent minors, allocated large sums for new prisons, and made 60 new offenses eligible for the death penalty.