I must be the devil incarnate to some of you folk riding that high horse......over the last 16 years of my career I've written hundreds of referrals supporting child molesters, sex offenders, drug dealers, wife beaters, etc. as long as they showed, to myself and the social work team, that they were trying to sort themselves out.
A letter can make the difference between help for the affliction/mental illness and rotting away to cause more havoc someday. As for those who think they would never hang out with "these kind" of people, well guess what, you are. You'd be amazed at the places I've seen ex-cons work once they are out. They don't all look like they should be on "Oz".
This kind of publicity is actually the worst thing that could happen to the convicted, they end up getting more time/fines/ conditions and doing way more of their sentences, non-famous folk get parole waaaaaaaaaay sooner then you really want to know.
Convicts cost money.....