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

Wachtler, Sol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1497637139 ISBN 13: 9781497637139

Publisher: Open Road Media, 2014

Synopsis

Driving down the Long Island Expressway in November of 1992, Sol Wachtler was New York’s chief judge and heir apparent to the New York governorship. Suddenly, three van loads of FBI agents swerved in front of him—bringing his car and his legal career to a halt. Wachtler's subsequent arrest, conviction, and incarceration for harassing his longtime lover precipitated a media feeding frenzy, revealing to the world his struggles with romantic attachment, manic depression, and drug abuse.

In this, his prison diary, Wachtler reveals the stark reality behind his vertiginous fall from the heights of the legal establishment to the underbelly of the criminal justice system. Sentenced to a medium security prison in Butner, North Carolina, Wachtler is stabbed by an unseen assailant, berated by prison guards, and repeatedly placed in solitary confinement with no explanation. Moreover, as a prisoner he confronts firsthand the inequities of a system his judicial rulings helped to construct and befriends the type of people he once sentenced.

With unflinching honesty, Wachtler draws on his unique experience of living life on both sides of the bench to paint a chilling portrait of prison life interwoven with a no-holds-barred analysis of the shortcomings of the American legal justice system. 

About this title

Review:

In November of 1992, New York's Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, an heir aparent to the governor's mansion, was arrested. He was charged and convicted for a humiliating crime stemming from his manic, obsessive harassment of his former mistress. A prominent New York socialite, the woman happened to be pals with the director of the FBI. Recorded conversations of the judge's threatening phone calls made for an open and shut case and sent the judge to federal prison for a 15-month stint. In After the Madness, the fallen jurist has created a confessional diary that chronicles his prison term. Stories of inmates are interspliced with prison reform recommendations and brief reflections on his crime. He also describes his "illness" and eventual diagnosis as manic-depressive, his incredible appetite (and ability!) to "self- medicate" at the rate of 5,000 pills in an 18-month period while serving on the bench, and the path he has taken to rebuild his name and career. The degree of hubris and the catastrophic fall give this story a classical dimension; the emphasis on psychiatry and self-esteem mark it as a product of our times.

From the Inside Flap:

of a year, Sol Wachtler went from being New York's top judge to the very bottom of the criminal justice system, assigned to solitary confinement in a federal prison. Poignant, gripping, and unflinching in its honesty, Wachtler's memoir is a warning from America's most dangerous realm and a revealing account of what prison does to individuals.

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1497637139
• ISBN 13: 9781497637139
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320