After the Madness:: A Judge's Own Prison Memoir

The combination of the brilliant and insightful mind of the former Chief Judge of New York State (and frontrunner for possible Governor), and his brutal dehumanizing experience in Federal Prison makes this book a "must read" for anyone who is concerned about this country's current "criminal justice" system. The opportunities that he made the most of to get to know people who were serving long terms for first offences, his insights into how the current sentencing guidelines have taken away the opportunity for judges to judge, and passed that authority over to the prosecutors is eye-opening.At the last, I was left with a helpless feeling for the total failure of the much vaunted "fairness" of our legal system. A realization that perhaps the greatest punishment isn't the incarceration, but the stripping of a person's personality, and opportunity to be a "normal part of society" upon release.Please read it, think about it, and ask yourself "Is there anything I can do to change this system?"

This book provides an excellent look at the justice system from both sides. The former chief judge for the highest court in New York spent time in federal prisons, and in this book, he shares his experiences and the lessons he learned. This is a great book for anyone interested in the legal system, because it gives Wachtler's inside views and opinions from the aspect of both a judge and a former prisoner.

This book should be read by every person involved in sentencing people (they are people) to our prisons, both federal and state. Senators and Representatives, both federal and state; probation officers, judges, the police, etc. The book illustrates how mental illness is still not put in the same category as physical illness. There is no sympathy, understanding, or compassion for one who is mentally ill. Judge Wachtler was severely punished for his crime of harassment. Harsh punishments for non-violent crimes should be reconsidered. Drug/alcohol addiction is an illness and should be treated as such by our criminal justice system. Prison is dehumanizing, especially for the non-violent offender. I would like to see Judge Wachtler try to effect the changes within our system that he talks about in his book.

I write this as a middle-aged attorney disabled for the past three years by depression. Wachtler is clearly a man of great courage, both with regard to his imprisonment and his disease. His comments about our legal and penal systems are quite good, and his recommendations should be taken seriously. The most intriguing aspect of the book, however, is the picture it presents of a manic-depressive and post-traumatic man who is still living very close to the time of his breakdown and who is not by any means cured or stabilized. Judge Wachtler presents, unintentionally I assume, a first-hand picture of a man still at the mercy of manic-depression and post-traumatic stress, who has not yet come to grips with what his condition is or what it has caused him to do. He continues to live in a world where all of his psychiatrists are the most eminent in their fields, his visitors and friends are Governors, Supreme Court Justices, and famous law professors. The unintended result of his story is to show a man still obsessed with his own importance and grandiosity and his pathetic efforts to hang on to what he once was. He offers endless rationalizations for what he did, even while he denies that he is trying to excuse what he did. There us always someone or some thing which is a significantly contributing cause to what happened. He appears as a man who has not yet submitted to the kind of utter surrender to his condition and to his most basic self which will be necessary for him to understand his disease and face it. Psychiatrists, as I understand it, would say that Judge Wachtler is in denial, at least in some very important respects. I know; I have been mired in self-righteous denial for some time now, and I still am. I would be interested to know how Judge Wachtler feels about himself and his experience four or five years from now, for I think his perceptions will change drastically as time passes. Many good chronicles have been written about the onset of mental illness and its associate! d breakdowns, but very little has been written about the grinding work of therapy and the deep and difficult personality changes which must occur before progress can be made toward recovery. Given his book as a baseline, and given Judge Wachtler's undeniable intelligence and courage, a second book detailing the road ahead might provide a deeper and more enriched understanding of Judge Wachtler's experience. The effort toward recovery is the tough, unromantic, and largely ignored part of mental illness. Still, this book, and the courage it portrays, is a great reassurance to those of us who have foolishly trashed our own lives in the throes of mental illness and who must now turn to humility and forgiveness for understanding and recovery.

Judge Wachtler writes with passion about the life he had and the life he has. Beginning with a brief story of his professional standing and his illness that led to his downfall. Mostly he writes about what he experienced when he committed a crime and was apprehended and imprisoned for it. He describes his life in two prisons where he became intimate friends with convicted fellons of many hues while receiving visitis from family, friends, and former colleagues. He also describes his release and subsequent realization that he could not take up where he left off - instead he had to start over, something he has done. Judge Watchler focuses attention on the injustice from law enforcement practice of entrapments or stings. He also lays bare his soul on the unfair use of sentencing guidelines that do not allow judges to choose a punishment suitable to the crime. I recommend this book to anyone interested in American Justice in the 1990's.