CRIME & CRIMINALS: Fact Sheet - 10/8/92 October 8, 1992 PRESIDENT BUSH IS CRACKING DOWN ON CRIME AND CRIMINALS For the vast majority of Americans who work hard and obey the law, the fact that others can turn to a life of crime and escape without serious punishment is an abomination. To ensure that these career criminals get the toughest penalties possible, President Bush has appointed 228 tough law-and-order U.S. Attorneys and judges to prosecute criminals and enforce stiffer sentences. While Bill Clinton says he supports President Bush's ideas, his record in Arkansas belies all-too-familiar lax sentencing and rising crime rates. Under Bill Clinton, Arkansas' violent crime rate has climbed 58 percent -- one of the worst records in the country. And, even though the nation's crime rate declined under Presidents Reagan and Bush, Arkansas had the largest increase in the overall crime rate in the entire nation -- nearly 28 percent. In addition, Little Rock Arkansas' metropolitan area has a higher crime rate than the metropolitan areas of New York City, Los Angeles, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Kansas City, and Houston. -- While Clinton served as Arkansas Attorney General, the state's chief law enforcement officer, crime rose by 4 percent after dropping by 15 percent in the two years prior to his tenure. Because of tough law-and-order Reagan and Bush anticrime policies, from 1980 to 1990 federal convictions jumped 63 percent. Tough Reagan and Bush judges sentenced more than twice as many defendants to prison in 1990 than were sentenced in 1980. Over the same period, prison time increased over 30 percent. -- Even more impressive progress has been made in getting drug criminals off the streets. Comparing 1990 to 1980, the number of drug traffickers convicted tripled, the number sent to prison more than tripled, and the average sentence was 74 percent longer. -- Clinton says that he supports stronger penalties for serious offenders. But, in Clinton's Arkansas, state inmates serve less than 20 percent of their original sentence. Almost no inmate, including violent offenders, serves a full sentence. Bill Clinton has praised the Bush Administration's approach in organizing communities to fight crime, because it works. The Bush Administration has provided approximately $18.3 million for the development and implementation of community policing programs. These programs -- in places like New York City, Houston, and Chicago -- have helped to decrease crime and the fear of crime dramatically. The President's 1992 Crime Bill includes additional funding of $150 million for the "Cop on the Beat" community policing grant program. -more- President Bush has proposed a new $500 million "Weed and Seed" initiative to reclaim and rejuvenate embattled neighborhoods and communities. This initiative will "weed" out gang leaders, violent criminals, and drug dealers by increasing the presence of police and by sentencing criminals to longer sentences. Once cleared of crime, neighborhoods will be "seeded" with new jobs, investment, and drug treatment programs. Already, "Weed and Seed" is achieving results in cities like Trenton, New Jersey and Kansas City, Missouri. President Bush has proposed $15.8 billion in federal spending to fight crime -- an increase of 59 percent since he took office. The President has tripled federal assistance to state and local law enforcement and has increased grants to state and local law enforcement each year he has been in office. President Bush also added over 800 FBI agents, 700 DEA agents, and 1,200 law-and-order Federal prosecutors to arrest and convict more criminals. Clinton's Arkansas ranks 49th in per capita expenditures for police protection and 50th in total State and local spending on the justice system. The President strongly supports the Crime Victims Fund which helps victims of crime reclaim their lives. In 1993, the Bush Administration will provide $144 million to assist victims of crime and to fund programs that offer support to overcome the traumas caused by violent criminals. The Bush Administration won a recent Supreme Court decision to allow families of murder victims to testify during the sentencing process about the crime's effect. Clinton has been silent on this case. Between 1989 and 1991, the Bush Administration won 400 convictions for major financial institution fraud -- including 134 savings and loan executives -- and convictions of 2,216 corrupt public officials, a record number over three-years. President Bush believes that the answer to overcrowded prisons is to build more prison space. The Bush Administration has invested over $2 billion in prison construction, nearly doubling bed space in federal and state prisons from 31.7 million beds to an estimated 53.4 million by 1993. Although Clinton talks about more prisons, Arkansas ranks 46th in per capita corrections spending -- a ranking that highlights Clinton's overall lack of investment in fighting crime. While Arkansas' violent crime rate rose 58 percent, per capita spending for police protection fell to 49th in the nation. Governor Clinton uses this fact as evidence of his efficient management, but often-nightmarish conditions in Arkansas' prisons are caused by Clinton's inadequate spending. President Bush has been at the forefront of innovative sentencing, establishing the first Federal boot camps -- alternative prisons to reform first-time offenders by instilling discipline and respect for the law. The Bush Administration established the first federal boot camp in February 1991. The program has been so successful that in January 1992, the facility's administrator received the Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Management. # # #