Pat Nolan

* Upon reading the headline, “Ex-Assemblyman, Jailed in Federal Probe, to Run Prison Reform Group” (Aug. 27), my first thought was that Pat Nolan’s time in prison must have somehow provided him a great dose of compassion for fellow inmates. Upon reading further I discovered that Nolan’s compassion ends with the white-collar criminal.

It doesn’t take a great deal of study to conclude that violent crime, although not limited to impoverished areas, is certainly concentrated in those areas. It is wrong to use poverty as an excuse for criminal behavior. At the same time, it is somewhat understandable that a person who grows up in a community where education is substandard, opportunity limited and the drug culture flourishes will more likely turn to crime than a contemporary with the advantages of a middle- or upper-class rearing. Without excusing the violent criminal, I would submit that white-collar criminals who come out of advantaged situations have less excuse for their behavior.

Nolan’s advocacy of treating white-collar criminals with kid gloves while making sure those that don’t run in his circle are punished severely strikes me as ludicrous. To make the whole thing even worse, he wraps his crusade in a cloak of dubious religiosity.

PATRICK I. O’DONNELL

Escondido

* Only in America can we have ex-con Chuck Colson hand over the presidency of the Justice Fellowship to almost-ex-con Nolan. All hail! We have a new dynasty of former corrupt government officials.

STAN GORDON

Canoga Park