DD,
Interesting news article in the LA Times
latimes.com;
Paroled Lawmaker to Push Prison Reform
Crime: Former colleagues will hear from Pat Nolan, who says he views
sentencing through 'whole new lenses' after serving nearly two years for
political corruption.
By MARK GLADSTONE, Times Staff Writer
ACRAMENTO--For 16 years, Assemblyman Pat Nolan, a
staunch conservative from Glendale, led Republican efforts
to crack down on crime and lengthen prison sentences.
Today, in a turnabout, the onetime leader of the state Assembly's
Republicans plans to tell his former colleagues that drug abusers and
other nonviolent prisoners may be spending too much time behind
bars.
The difference between then and now: Nolan's nearly two years in
prison on political corruption charges.
As a result of that confinement, Nolan said, he now views the world
through "whole new lenses." In an interview Monday, he
complained that the criminal justice system has failed to make
communities safer and lamented that "our prisons are revolving
doors."
Nolan expects to hammer home that message in a legislative hearing
on prison management today--his first such appearance since his
release two years ago from a federal penitentiary.
Testifying will be the latest step in an unusual personal odyssey that
reflects Nolan's transformation from hard-edged Southern
California anti-tax crusader to Bible-quoting prison reformer based
in Virginia. In the Legislature, Nolan, a longtime Roman Catholic
whose faith was rekindled in prison, was the consummate insider;
today, he will be the outsider, trying to dissuade his onetime
colleagues from views he once held himself.
"We should reserve prison space for people we are afraid of, not
just that we are angry at," said Nolan, who four years ago pleaded
guilty to a single racketeering charge as part of a far-ranging federal
sting operation against corruption in state politics.
The goal of prison, Nolan said, should not be to merely incarcerate
criminals but instead to turn them into useful members of society and
bring peace to their communities. Nonviolent prisoners could
compensate their victims and continue to support their families, for
example, if allowed to serve time at home under strict
supervision--that would also save the state money, he said.
Nolan, 47, landed a job right out of prison as president of Justice
Fellowship, a Virginia-based prison reform group associated with
another onetime political figure, former White House aide Charles
W. Colson of Watergate fame. Now, Nolan spends his time on the
nationwide lecture circuit, sometimes visiting prisons.
Most recently, he publicly urged Texas officials to consider
clemency for Carla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who
experienced a conversion to Christianity while in prison. "A living
monument to the change that can take place when someone gives
their heart to God . . . is better than just another dead convict,"
Nolan said. Tucker was executed.
A lawyer and a USC graduate, Nolan was first elected to the
Assembly in 1978--one of a crop of so-called Proposition 13
babies who ran for office in support of the landmark property tax
cutting initiative. Glib and ambitious, Nolan climbed the political
ladder, becoming leader of the Assembly's Republicans, and
seemed poised for higher office.
But his rise paralleled an undercover FBI investigation of the
Capitol that led to the conviction of 14 people, including five
lawmakers. Four years ago, Nolan pleaded guilty to racketeering
and received a 33-month sentence.
Nolan admitted to conducting his Assembly office as "racketeering
enterprise" to extort campaign contributions from those who sought
his support on legislation. On Monday, Nolan, his sandy hair now
going gray, declined to discuss his case, saying, "I'm not here to
change people's opinions of me and what occurred."
Nolan said he remains on probation for two more years.
Nolan, who lives in Virginia with his wife and three children, was
interviewed at a local motel where his group is holding a
conference. His navy polo shirt sported a name tag reading simply,
"Pat."
Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) said Nolan volunteered to
testify today before his Public Safety Committee. Though
Vasconcellos had sharp policy differences with Nolan, he
welcomed his old antagonist to the Capitol, saying, "We're happy to
have him back."
Nolan said his prison experience gave him a valuable perspective to
share with his former colleagues. Citing an incident he often recalled
in prison, Nolan said that as a lawmaker he had brushed aside a
proposal by former Sen. Ed Davis, a onetime Los Angeles police
chief, to extend workers' compensation to prison inmates.
" 'Ed,' I said, 'that's the stupidest idea in the world. Why should the
businesses in my district pay higher premiums to pay benefits to
criminals?' "
An angry Davis, Nolan remembered, "looked me straight in the eye
and said, 'How can you call yourself a Christian and say that?' "
Nolan said that conversation often haunts him. "I didn't think of
inmates as humans," he said, "as my brothers in Christ."
Regards,
Ron |
