Abstract

Willie Horton probably cost Michael Dukakis the American presidency. Before running, Dukakis served for ten years as governor of Massachusetts and was one of the most vociferous opponents of the death penalty. He also thought prisons to be primarily tools for education and rehabilitation. Dukakis wished the penal system would restore to criminals their lost or forfeited humanity and prepare convicts for a “return to the community”; under his administration, state prisons' inmates were allowed home leaves. Horton failed to return from one of those leaves. Instead, he raped a woman. This is what can be expected when soft-hearted liberals…