Inside the Robe: A Judge's Candid Tale of Criminal Justice in America

by Katherine Mader

Have you ever wondered what a judge is really thinking? To most people, judges are mysterious creatures. Judge Mader shines a bright spotlight on the hidden folds of the judging world. The old saying is that judges merely "follow the law." Yet following the law can produce wildly different results depending upon each judge's background, politics, and life experiences. Even the floor of the courthouse to which a case is assigned can mean the difference between prison and freedom.  Never before has the judging world been laid bare for all to see.

   "A thoughtful and provocative personal account and an excellent primer on the American judicial process."--Kirkus Reviews

  "This book literally held me hostage until the last page." --author Michael Connelly

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, True Crime, History, Amazon, Ebooks

393 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 4, 2021

Reviews

[Eve Koguce · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a huge fan of memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies, I could not go by this book when it landed in my email among other promoted titles. Not so long ago, I finally changed my reading preferences on BookBub and started receiving promo deals for the books I’m really interested in reading.

I am not as ardent a fan of crime fiction or shows, though. Since the time the only crime books we knew were written by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle (yes, I’m exaggerating, but the gist remains), I never found myself immersed in untangling a murder mystery on the pages. As a teenager obsessed with books the way I was then, I, of course, read a few mysteries by renowned crime authors. And still, it ended there, and until this day, I haven’t developed a habit of binge-reading crime novels.

Having made this confession, I must say that Agatha Christie’s autobiography is one of the best books of this kind I have read so far. I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it to both fans of memoirs like myself and the author’s fans.

Returning to the book I am reviewing. “Inside the Robe: A Judge's Candid Tale of Criminal Justice in America” by Katherine Mader is an absolutely fascinating and eye-opening insight into the judge’s work. It is written in the form of a diary, which makes it easy to follow. The author meticulously documented a year of her life as a judge of one of the Los Angeles County courthouses.

Every job and every life role is more than the scope of duties a person performs. A doctor not only sets diagnoses and prescribes relevant medicine. A surgeon not only cuts flesh and sews it back. A cop does not solely capture the criminals and issue fine tickets. A parent’s tasks go beyond feeding, clothing, and educating their children. All of these people – all of us – along with performing what our various roles imply, must adhere to the rules of each group we belong to. Doctors and surgeons have to play by the rules of the hospital administration. Policemen must follow the internal rules and instructions as to how to use weapons on the job, which words not to use when performing an arrest, etc. Mothers and fathers are expected to participate in the groups formed within schools to ensure the interaction of their children with their class and teachers. It is the same for judges.

A judge not only presides in court and makes decisions about the punishment measures. A judge walks on the thin ice between colleagues, politicians, judges in more influential positions, trying not to stir wider public opinion, not to spoil the relationships with attorneys, and, ultimately, to ‘follow the law.’ Which, as we can easily see reading Judge Mader’s story, is much harder than can be expected.

Katherine Mader mentions that most people, unconnected with the world of justice, see judges as some superior beings. She says that the title ‘Judge’ clings to you even outside the courthouse, sometimes even among your friends. It is an interesting moment, demonstrating, in my opinion, most vividly how unique a judge’s profession is.

“Inside the Robe” by Katherine Mader is a non-fiction book. For lovers of crime books, it might be a drawback. This book depicts real life, and in real life, not every crime gets solved and not every bad guy gets what they deserve. Some trials the author writes about had started before she began writing this diary. Some weren’t finished within the limits of the year covered in the book. The aim of murder mysteries is to give the reader the satisfaction of seeing a murderer exposed and put in the hands of the justice system. The aim of Judge Mader’s memoir was to show what a year in a judge’s chair is. Some might find it unsatisfactory, but if we stop and think about it – can we imagine how incomparably more upsetting it must have been for the author?

The thing that struck me the most about this book is the realisation of how many crimes the justice system is forced to deal with are committed by people with mental health issues. Something about it nagged at me while I read and analysed the cases mentioned. It still scratches at my consciousness, but I am not ready to express my reflections in words. It is something about us treating the whole mental health problem in the wrong way. It seems that society in general understands that these people require a different attitude, but, at the same time, we expect them to adapt to the rules of conduct designed for everyone.

I am grateful to the author for the excellent read, which “Inside the Robe: A Judge's Candid Tale of Criminal Justice in America” proved to be, and for giving me the food for thought about the US system of justice.

[HR-ML · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction.

Katherine Mader received her law degree from the
University of California @ Davis. This fascinating
book explored her career: defense attorney on criminal
cases, Deputy DA on criminal cases (she started as a
volunteer Deputy DA to prove her worth & then was
hired), the first Inspector General of the LAPD & the
last 17 years of her career as Superior Court Judge on
criminal cases. She explained that LA County had 38
courthouses!

Judge Mader spoke of the politics within the judiciary
(which tended not to promote or delay promotion or
choice assignments to those judges perceived as
"outspoken") & politicos who favored law and order
vs defendant rehabilitation or a change in the law IE
3 strikes). She added "There are many reasons your
own felony court doesn't happen. A judge can be too
slow, too harsh, too lenient or too rude. (58% mark)"

Mader spoke of defendants (some lied in the courtroom),
crime victims & judges who were subjected to being dis-
qualified on a case (& received no specifics) or an appeals
court overturned the judge. She spoke of the team in her
courtroom IE the bailiff (trained in the sheriff's office)
the clerk, & lastly the argumentative deputy DA (assigned
to her) who wanted to please her own boss. At times a
defense attorney or deputy DA became defensive when
Judge Mader directed him/ her to verify medical records
or rehab records or probation time spent or left, of the
defendant (the actual records) & report back to her in court.

Mader's cases involved: murder, vehicular homicide, gangs,
sexual abuse, drugs etc. She stated that most defendants
who insisted on being his/ her own attorney were incapable
of carrying this out due to: emotional volatility, mental
illness, not following court rules/ procedures, being pre-
occupied w/ irrelevant issues, refusing to go to court.

Mader said judges were critical of each other and who had
the harder job: judges w/ civil vs criminal cases? Judges
Governor-appointed vs elected by voters?

Active or retired military came before her court, some w/
PTSD. An expert witness testified in her court those w/
PTSD experience 3 major problems: 1) re-experience the
trauma 2) avoidance (avoidance may include substance
abuse) & 3) hypervigilance. Someone who had a traumatic
event may overreact and distort reality in the present.
(81-82% mark).

[Pru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to @netgalley for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This nonfictional read gives us a frank view into the day-to-day lives of the American criminal justice system and the Judges who seem to control all the power. Written in diary format and spanning over one year Judge Mader shows the inner turmoil and isolation that her work brings.

I found this read interesting and definitely learnt a few facts however I found the writing dry and at times felt like I was reading a legal textbook. I did enjoy the politics within the judicial system but the story lines were disjointed due to the diary format. The reader was only given brief summaries of the cases (possibly for legal reasons) yet I would have preferred more of the nitty gritty details.

[Una Tiers · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction soured this book for me. I'm beginning to think introductions and dedications should be at the end of the book so we can jump into the story.

[Tore · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I grew up, the USA seemed like the promised land, a bountiful land of the free. Now it's more like the land of the unfree. According to statistics published by the BBC and on Wikipedia, USA has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, by a fair margin. How did this come to be? This book does not say much about this, and the author is pretty positive to the judicial system in her country, at least in California. I can't say I support that statement much, I was sceptical before reading it, and I came away with my views enforced, not weakened.

After having watched a lot of (good) television like the Goodwife and the Good Fight, I wanted to learn about how it compared with an actual courtroom, and found this book. It is well written, judge Mader comes off as both knowledgable and experienced, as well as compassionate and reasonable. But compared with the judicial system in my country, hers does not fare well. Defendants are offered (by the prosecution) wildly different plea bargains for similar crimes, and differences of that kind can depend on which floor (!) the trial is allotted to. Some prosecutors are going for the maximum sentences no matter what, not because it serves society, but because it may serve their careers to do so, or vice versa, if they are viewed as to lenient, their careers may stall.

In my country, Norway, the jury system was disbanded in 2017, because it was too unpredictable, a crapshoot, is the term used by Judge Mader in several instances. Here, the judicial system seeks to reform criminals, and I'd say this approach is much more successful than the US system. It is rare that anyone are sentenced to more than 20 years in prison here, while in the US, 40-50 years is not at all unusual, and it need not even be because of crimes like murder, due to of abysmal three strike rule, that ensured people were locked up for life, for much less serious offenses. Some people undoubtedly deserve these harsh sentences, having done senseless acts that resulted in loss of life. But all in all, this aggressive approach, does more harm than good.

So I live in a liberal country, with lots of safety nets, universal health care, unions, 12 months paid maternity leave, 5 weeks mandatory vacation, free education and many other great benefits that are frowned upon, even actively hated in the USA, especially by right wing politicians and activists. So is it bad, resulting in slackers and criminals and a bad economy? Quite the opposite. To make a comparison, Detroit had between 200 and 300 murders each year the past 5 years. In my metropolitan area, Oslo and adjacent counties, a population of about 1.5 million people - the number was 22 in 2020, or a tenth the Detroit rate. There are very few homeless people, and most people are not rich, but not many are poor either. It's possible to live off one income, and work hours are 37.5 hours a week, and you're paid for overtime beyond that. In the US, you are either paid a lot of money (judges, lawyers, doctors) or very little 7-10 dollars an hour for "unskilled" workers, creating a larger and larger gap every year that goes by. This makes it harder to survive, and easier to turn to crime, for an increasing number of people.

Back to the book: while not exactly convincing me that the judicial system in California is a great thing, I find the book both interesting and enlighting. Recommended if you want to know more about the inner workings, of the day to day in a criminal courthouse in Los Angeles.

[JohnP · Rating 5 out of 5]

An illuminating look into the life of a criminal court judge in LA

You have seen Law & Order, CSI, maybe you have been a juror. Perhaps, in addition to all of those experiences, you work in the criminal justice system. Either way, this book is an intriguing window into the day-to-day experiences of a criminal court judge in a busy courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

In the format of a diary, we see cases come and return later, and are often surprised as new details emerge. Of course a book of this length can only provide snapshots of the many hundreds of matters the author handled during the chosen year. But over and over again she provides the background to many challenging decisions she had to make, especially involving sentencing. The reader is placed in the position of asking how they would decide, newly appreciating just how difficult such choices can be.

The author also provides enlightening stories of her previous careers in and around criminal justice. The reader gets an informed sense of how laws and policies have evolved, and is left to consider how they should change in the future.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve all seen them: the judges in their black robes presiding over courtrooms, whether we’ve been there for a traffic violation or jury selection. The robe gives them power and mystique. Judge Katherine Mader has not written a “tell-all” book, but rather a very personal peek into her criminal courtroom in a way most of us have not experienced before, as well as her thought processes. How does a judge think? What goes into making a decision? How does it feel knowing you’re sending someone to prison for years, maybe even for life? How does the judge preside over her staff? How does one build a career from law school to a judgeship? What do judges talk about over lunch? Who judges the judges? These questions and more are answered by Judge Mader as she takes us “Inside the Robe” during one recent year on the bench in Los Angeles. A portion of the book is devoted to her family history and how it inspired her to write this testimonial to honor them. Highly recommended.

[Lunavera Casen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be upfront: I picked up Inside the Robe with zero enthusiasm. A friend shoved it into my hands and said, "Just try the first chapter." I resented that. I'm not a legal drama person. I don't watch courtroom TV shows, I've never been called for jury duty, and frankly, the American justice system has always felt like something that happens to other people, distant, abstract, someone else's problem. So I cracked the spine on this book fully expecting to be bored within twenty pages and ready to hand it back with a polite "not for me."
That is not what happened.
Judge Katherine Mader writes about a year of her life presiding over a felony trial courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, and she does it in diary form which is a deceptively smart choice. Because diaries don't lecture. They don't summarize. They don't tidy things up. They drop you into the middle of a Tuesday morning where a mentally ill defendant is screaming in the hallway, a defense attorney is running late, and the judge hasn't had coffee yet. And suddenly you're not reading about "the justice system." You're reading about a person trying to do a nearly impossible job with grace, fairness, and the occasional flash of dark humor.
What surprised me most was how political the whole enterprise is. I genuinely did not know that judges in California are elected or that they can be removed, disciplined, and publicly embarrassed by a body called the Commission on Judicial Performance. Mader is candid about how that oversight shapes her decisions, sometimes in ways that feel uncomfortable to admit. She worries about appearances. She worries about reversal on appeal. She worries about what other judges think of her. And in being honest about those pressures, she reveals something important: that "following the law" is never as clean or neutral as the civics textbooks suggest. Every ruling is filtered through a human being with history, anxieties, and blind spots.
The cases themselves are harrowing, often heartbreaking. There is one stretch of the book where Mader describes a parade of mentally ill defendants cycling through her courtroom , people who are clearly sick, clearly in need of treatment, and who instead receive the blunt instrument of the criminal justice system because there is nothing else available. She doesn't editorialize heavily. She just describes. And the cumulative effect is devastating. You finish those chapters feeling a specific kind of grief that isn't about any one person but about a collective failure.
I also found myself moved by how deeply Mader cares about doing the job right. She is not a cynical narrator. She doesn't coast. When she gets something wrong when she's too harsh, or too lenient, or reads a situation incorrectly, she sits with it. She interrogates herself. That quality of honest self-examination is rare in memoir and rarer still in professional memoir, where the temptation to present a polished, heroic version of yourself must be enormous.
I finished this book in three days. My friend was right, and I hate that.

[Noémie Media · Rating 5 out of 5]

The diary format works brilliantly for this. Rather than a retrospective memoir where everything has been smoothed into narrative sense, Mader gives us the texture of actual days: the calendar chaos, the attorneys who are unprepared, the witnesses who contradict themselves, the defendants who break down in the middle of testimony. It reads like a dispatch from the front lines of a system that is simultaneously sophisticated and improvised, principled and political.

For many years the courtroom was my office. I worked as a deputy public defender and later in private criminal defense. I thought I understood courtrooms completely the rhythms, the personalities, the unwritten rules. I thought I knew what the judge was thinking because I'd been watching judges for years and had developed, I believed, a fairly reliable read on them.
I was wrong, and this book corrected me in the most entertaining and instructive way possible.
Reading Inside the Robe from my particular vantage point was a revelation. All those moments where I thought I knew what was happening inside the judge's head, the small hesitations, the particular questions, the tone shifts, Mader's account showed me how much I was projecting. How much the judicial experience differs from what any attorney in the well can perceive. Judges are managing fifteen things simultaneously that attorneys are entirely unaware of. They're tracking a case calendar that extends weeks in every direction. They're managing court staff relationships and interacting with a presiding judge who has opinions about how their courtroom is run. They're trying to remain legally correct while also, quietly, trying to be just and those two things are not always the same.

The sentencing sections were the most valuable for me professionally. As a defense attorney, I always argued for leniency and I always believed my arguments were the most important factor in a sentencing outcome. Mader's account is a gentle but firm correction to that belief. The judge has read everything. The judge has thought about everything. The judge is weighing factors that the attorney's argument touches only partially. The performance aspect of sentencing hearings and I say this having given hundreds of them, conceals a much more complex private deliberation that Mader maps in detail.

I've already recommended this to colleagues on both sides of the aisle. It should be assigned reading in law schools and public defender offices across the country.

[Lauryn Media · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me confess my initial disappointment and then walk it back entirely, because I think other true crime readers need to hear this before they dismiss the book or approach it with the wrong expectations.
I came to Inside the Robe because I am deeply immersed in the true crime world. I listen to podcasts, I watch documentaries, I've read dozens of books. I know the genre's conventions: a gripping case, investigation, suspects, resolution, justice or its absence. I expected this book to give me that, seasoned with judicial insider knowledge.
It does not do that. And that is not a criticism, it is actually the book's greatest strength, even if it takes a few chapters to realize it.
What Mader offers instead is something the true crime genre almost never provides: context. The sprawling, messy, politically tangled context in which every single case every crime, every arrest, every trial — is actually embedded. True crime tends to isolate cases from their surroundings, treating each one as a contained drama. Mader shows that no case is contained. Every case arrives in a courtroom dragging enormous institutional baggage: budget pressures, attorney relationships, precedents, media attention, the particular judge's history with similar cases. None of this is visible from the outside. All of it shapes the outcome.

She also does something almost no true crime author does: she humanizes the defendants. Not in a naive or exculpatory way, Mader is not soft on violence or cruelty. But she consistently refuses to reduce people to their worst acts. She describes defendants with mental illness, with terrible histories of trauma, with circumstances so dire that the crime becomes, if not understandable, at least explicable in human terms. That is uncomfortable reading sometimes, and I mean that as a compliment. It should be uncomfortable. It should make us ask harder questions.

By the end of the book I had shifted my entire framework for thinking about crime stories. I'll never listen to a true crime podcast the same way again. Every episode where someone gets sentenced and the music swells as if justice has been triumphantly delivered, I'll be thinking about everything Judge Mader showed me that happens in the gaps.

[Vynessa Kason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be honest about my experience with this book because I think it might help readers who find themselves where I found myself around page 80: mildly overwhelmed and wondering if I had the background to follow along.
I don't have a legal background. I'm a nurse. I know medicine, I know bureaucracy, I know the feeling of making high-stakes decisions in imperfect conditions but I don't know law. Some of the procedural sections in the first quarter of Inside the Robe lost me temporarily. I wasn't always sure what was at stake in certain rulings, or why a particular motion mattered, or what the consequences of a given decision would be for the people involved.

I kept reading, and I'm so glad I did, because something shifted around the one-third mark. Either I had absorbed enough context to follow more easily, or Mader's writing became more grounded in human terms and less in procedural ones, probably both. And from that point forward I was completely absorbed.
What I found most meaningful, coming from a healthcare background, was the mental health thread that runs through the entire book. Mader returns again and again to the enormous number of defendants who are seriously mentally ill, people who needed psychiatric care, who might have gotten it if our systems worked differently, who instead ended up in criminal court because the safety net failed them somewhere upstream. As a nurse who has worked in emergency settings, I recognized every one of those cases. I've seen those same people in my ER, unable to get the care they need, cycling through crises. Mader describes them with the same mixture of compassion and exhaustion that I feel, and it created an unexpected connection between her world and mine.
Push through the first section if it feels unfamiliar. The book rewards patience enormously.

[Teyla Whitlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

The timing of this book in my life was almost cosmically appropriate. I started it the night before I was supposed to report for jury duty and finished it the day I was dismissed from the pool without being selected. Reading about voir dire from the judge's perspective while simultaneously sitting in a jury assembly room waiting to be called was one of the stranger reading experiences of my life.
Mader's description of jury selection is unlike anything I've encountered in popular writing about courts. She explains what both sides are actually doingn not the sanitized civics version about seeking an impartial jury, but the real strategic game of trying to populate the jury box with people whose life experiences predispose them toward your client's case. She describes the questions attorneys ask, what they're actually probing for, and how judges try to maintain a process that serves justice when both sides are working against that goal in complementary ways.
Sitting in that room, watching attorneys from both sides walk the rows asking carefully worded questions, I felt like I had a simultaneous English translation running in my head. I understood what was happening. I understood why certain people were thanked and excused. I understood why the questions took the shapes they did. It was remarkable to have that level of insight, and it came entirely from this book.

Beyond the jury selection, I found Mader's account of day-to-day court management fascinating in ways I hadn't expected. The sheer volume of cases moving through a single courtroom, the scheduling, the continuances, the plea negotiations, the last-minute witness issues creates a kind of organized chaos that the public never sees. We only see the moments that make the news: dramatic verdicts, tearful testimony, outbursts in the courtroom. Mader shows the ocean of unglamorous work underneath all of that.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book with fairly high expectations, and for the most part, it delivers, even if it doesn’t fully go as far as I had hoped.

What stands out immediately is the level of transparency. Katherine Mader gives readers a perspective on the judicial process that we rarely get access to. It’s not just surface-level commentary, she actually brings you into the thinking behind certain decisions, the pressures, the constraints, the human side of a role that is often seen as distant or purely procedural. The anecdotes throughout the book are engaging and, at times, surprisingly revealing.

There’s a clarity in her writing that makes complex ideas accessible without oversimplifying them. You don’t need a legal background to follow along, which makes the book approachable while still feeling substantive.

That said, I did find myself wanting more in certain areas. In particular, I would have appreciated a deeper exploration of the broader systemic issues. The focus remains largely on individual experience and perspective, which is valuable, but it sometimes feels like the bigger structural questions are only touched on rather than fully examined. There were moments where it felt like the conversation stopped just short of where it could have become even more impactful.

Even with that limitation, the book succeeds in what it sets out to do. It opens a door that is usually closed to the public and invites the reader to step inside, if only briefly. That alone gives it real value.

[Annette Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inside the Robe by Judge Katherine Mader is described a candid tale of criminal justice in America, and I found myself intrigued by the idea of a behind the scenes look at day to day life in the courtroom. The book is written in a diary format, which really does give it a feeling of looking at someone's personal papers, and the judge does not mince her words when it comes to describing her day to day interactions, not just with the accused, but also with the other court professionals such as bailiffs, court reporters and both prosecution and defence attorneys. She can be cutting and comes across as almost blunt at times, but it is also clear that she gives a lot of thought to her decisions and rulings, and has a genuine interest in seeing justice served. The diary format also helped to give a sense of how long a case takes to go through the court process as we follow particular cases across several months from first appearance to sentencing. I felt like I had gained some insight into the complexities of the job by reading the book . I have always enjoyed reading and learning about other people and their lives and I would recommend this book to anyone else who shares that interest.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredibly moving, inspiring, raw account of the day to day dealings of a Superior Court judge. I highly recommend this book, not just for someone currently working or aspiring to work in the criminal justice system, but for the rest of us who are on the outside and rarely get a glimpse into its inner workings. This account from Judge Mader had me on an emotional roller coaster from page one. Her daily writings were well-organized and not loaded with legal jargon, making it easy for the reader to follow along with her cases as they progressed. She examines her own personal history throughout and questions her own inadequacies, which makes this read all the more compelling.

Judge Mader very candidly writes about prosecutors who are afraid to confront their supervisors, officers who stick their necks out and pay the price, distinctions construed between elected and appointed judges, and the far-reaching influence of the Commission on Judicial Performance. She doesn’t hold back as she describes her ascent to the bench and the consequences she faced for placing what was right, above what was expected.

In a time when we are all trying to understand how our systems of justice work for and against us, this book is quite simply an essential read.

[Matt Kelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Most of the legal stories we read (fiction and non-fiction) focus on a few standard tropes:
- The smart sleuth or detective who puzzles out whodunit
- The dogged cop who catches the bad guy
- The fearless prosecutor who puts the bad guy away
- The heroic defender who prevents injustice being done to the innocent

We never hear about judges. Other than Judge John Deed, I can't think of any off the top of my head. So it's interesting to find out what life's like from the bench. It turns out, it's not what you probably expect. At heart, judges are people, doing a shitty job, in shitty circumstances, and they're subject to pressures we don't realize. There's no such thing as "simply following the law." Judges routinely disagree with cops, DAs, defense attorneys, politicians, bailiffs, and many others. Sometimes, they push back. Often, they don't, because they don't want to jeopardize their own position, especially if they're elected judges.

That said, it wasn't the most engaging read. It's a diary, not a story. Some of it is very bland, and many of the most interesting aspects are, naturally, left out. But nevertheless, worth reading if you want to understand this aspect of the justice system.

[Tara Winslow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't write reviews often. I'm not a natural writer and I always feel like I don't have anything useful to add to what other people have already said better. But this book made me feel things I want to put down somewhere, even imperfectly.
Judge Mader spent nineteen years in a felony trial courtroom in Los Angeles. She dealt with murder cases, assault cases, drug cases, and a constant stream of defendants with severe mental illness who had nowhere else in the system to go. She did this every day. She went home at night, presumably, and came back the next morning and did it again. And then she wrote a book about it that is as honest and unsparing as anything I've read, not just about the justice system but about what it costs a person to do meaningful, difficult work for a long time.

The part that got me most was a relatively small moment, I won't give it away, where Mader describes the feeling of having made a decision she can't take back, one that she thinks was legally correct but morally ambiguous, and she describes sitting with that. Not resolving it. Just sitting with it. That is the most human thing in the world and she described it in a way that made me feel less alone in all the unresolvable things I carry from my own work.

Read this book. It's important.

[KBV GAtors · Rating 4 out of 5]

I happened on this book by accident and am glad I did. I agree with others’ perceptions that parts of the book were dry but I understand why. I must also say that it was eye-opening because I live in Florida and was employed in the legal field for 48 years, and some of the procedures in California are significantly different than in Florida, and I now understand why the State of California has so many problems. The thought of an attorney disqualifying a judge for anything but a significant and prejudicial reason is foreign to me. Also, cases bouncing from one judge to the other is unheard of in Florida. Apparently, attorneys have a great deal more influence in California than Florida. Add to that Judge Mader’s description of prosecutors and public defenders being handed files for the first time 2 days before a scheduled trial, and I could only shake my head at the lunacy! But all of the above explains a lot about why California is in the mess it is. I’m so glad I read this book, and I’m equally glad I don't live in California. I’m going to recommend this book to some of my former co-workers who will, I’m sure, find it as eye-opening / and disheartening - as I did.

[Autumn Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading Inside the Robe, I spent some time looking into Katherine Mader's background, which is genuinely extraordinary. She began her career as a deputy public defender in Los Angeles, worked as a prosecutor on high-profile cases including the Hillside Strangler investigation, and became the first-ever Inspector General of the LAPD, a watchdog role overseeing their disciplinary system, before spending nineteen years as a Superior Court judge. She also holds two law degrees, from UCLA and UC Davis.

I mention all of this because it shapes how you read the memoir. Mader is not describing the justice system from one vantage point. She has inhabited it from nearly every angle. When she describes the dynamics between prosecutors and defense attorneys in her courtroom, she has been both. When she describes the police officers testifying before her, she has overseen the department that trained them. When she describes sentencing decisions, she has spent decades on both sides of that conversation. The breadth of experience behind her observations gives them a weight and credibility that a memoir from a judge with a more conventional career path simply wouldn't have.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written and informative book. It was somewhat disturbing to find that judges are plagued with peer pressure just as we are in many situations in life. I for one, would like to think the judicial system was above that. It was also very revealing to those of us that have little or no experience with the court system. Although I've served on a jury and had jury duty several times I've had no insight to the court room. The most disturbing revaluation in the book was to openly hear of the corruption within police departments. I've long known that they go to great lengths to protect each other and close ranks around bad cops. Hearing someone from within the system talk about it makes it all the more disturbing. With all the bad publicity departments are having across the country you would think they would want to make examples of those that have no business with a badge and a gun. None of that is the real story here though and the book is a very informative and interesting book.

[Toni Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting a fairly straightforward memoir, perhaps a few anecdotes from the bench, some reflections on the legal system, and not much beyond that. What I encountered instead was something far more layered and, at times, quietly unsettling.

What makes this book stand out is not just that Katherine Mader explains how the system works, but that she exposes how much of it depends on the individual sitting behind the bench. The idea that two judges can interpret the same law in radically different ways is not new, but seeing it illustrated through real cases makes it feel far more real, and frankly, more concerning.

There’s a subtle honesty running through the entire narrative. She doesn’t try to present judges as purely objective figures. Instead, she acknowledges bias, fatigue, personal history, and even emotion as unavoidable influences. That kind of transparency is rare.

By the end, I didn’t feel angry at the system, I felt more aware of it. And that, to me, is the value of this book.

[Owen Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

But more than just answering my practical questions, the book answered a deeper one: what is the judge actually for? I had naively assumed judges were something like referees neutral, above the fray, there to enforce rules that everyone already understood.

Mader shows how much more complicated it is than that. The judge is simultaneously a rules enforcer, a case manager, a legal researcher, a diplomat between hostile attorneys, a protector of the defendant's rights, a guardian of the jury's integrity, and a human being with her own history and conscience showing up every day to make decisions that affect real lives.

The weight of that responsibility comes through on every page. Mader is not self-aggrandizing about it. She doesn't strike heroic poses. Instead she describes the weariness, the doubt, the small daily decisions that add up to something enormous over nineteen years. It's the most honest professional portrait I've ever read.

If you've ever served on a jury, or been in a courtroom for any reason, this book will reframe everything you thought you understood.

[Donna Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to #NetGalley, Judge Katherine Mader and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book prior to publication in exchange for my review. Inside the Robe: A Judge's Candid Tale of Criminal Justice in America by Judge Katherine Mader is an inside look about what takes place in America's courtrooms. Mader talks about the day to day things that go on in her courtroom as well as addressing larger questions such as what happens when inmates refuse to come to court and whether a judge can manipulate a jury trial to get what he wants. It is informative and interesting at the same time. It pulled back the curtain on the mysteries of what happens in the judicial system and it was a bit disturbing to discover that maybe justice is not blind after all, maybe a particular judge can mean the difference between getting a case dismissed or going to prison. It is worth reading.

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this e-book from Net Galley in exchange for a review. I regret to say that I did not finish the book. I'm surprised. I love memoirs and this book promised to teach me something new. I don't know much about the law or the court system and the idea of going on a vicarious tour inside the robes of a judge was very appealing. Unfortunately, I found the tour very dull. It felt like the author has been a judge for so long that the novelty has worn off. She could have been describing her job as a supermarket cashier -- what her surroundings look like, who she eats lunch with and what they talk about, where she parks, what she wears -- but there was no life there. I got the impression that much of the job is routine. Most court dates deal with the details of moving a case closer to a trial or a negotiated settlement and I suppose there's not much drama in that.
I'm sorry it didn't carry me through to the end. I tried.

[RN · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am left wanting more!

I found this book fascinating. I wish she could have gone a little deeper into these cases. I feel like we didn't even get the Reader's Digest version! I very much appreciate her attention to law instead of serving her self interests or fulfilling some political agenda. How in the world do those crooked judges get away with their decisions. Do they not have supervisors or someone to hold them accountable? Even the Supreme Court Justices often make decisions based on their political ideologies instead of the Constitution
which just makes me ill. During elections when it's time to vote whether to retain certain judges I find it almost impossible to find non-biased information on them let alone their political party. Anyone can find out what party I'm registered as but not judges! I appreciate Judge Mader's transparency!
I recommend this book to anyone who loves to read!

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a law student and future attorney, I knew this was a must-read for me. I worked for a judge this past summer, so I had a bit of an idea of how a judge's day goes and what it's like in a judge's chambers. I think that was a good background going into this book. I knew the basics and this was just extra insight into the judge's mind. I can see how it would be a little more difficult for someone who hasn't been in that position. The diary-like organization was neat, but I'm not sure I loved it. It was a little disjointed and sometimes hard to keep up with the recurring but interrupted storylines. I can also tell it was written by someone in the legal field, and maybe not in a great way. It was a little dry even though the actual stories she was telling were interesting. Overall, I would still recommend this book but I wish it was organized a little more directly and written a little less so. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for sending me a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I would like to thank the publisher and @netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. Being interested in all things true crime, and having degrees in Criminology (and contemplating law school!), this book really interested me. It is about a retired Judge who gives behind the scenes information about what it's like being a judge. I liked how she wrote it almost as a daily journal and told stories of how she first started out as a public defender and eventually rose to a criminal court Judge. I also enjoyed hearing different cases she has seen and presided over. I also enjoyed hearing the author's thoughts on different topics, both controversial topics and mundane topics - all while relating them to cases she has presided over or heard about from other judges. This book is really a behind the scenes look at being a judge and I eeally enjoyed it!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was provided a free copy of this book by @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
I really enjoyed this inside look into the life of a judge. Judge Mader journaled for a year about her cases, decisions, and typical courtroom procedures. She also brings up the politics of being elected vs appointed, the fine line that sometimes needs to be walked to ensure the judge adequately does their job without stepping (too hard) on toes, and the difficulties of sentencing and filling a jury. I thought it was a very thoughtful and well written discussion on some pretty difficult topics. So much of sentencing and decisions made by judges are not black and white issues.
If you like learning about someone else's life and job, you will enjoy this. This book was published yesterday, 1 September, so it is now available to purchase!! 🥳
#InsideTheRobe #NetGalley

[LEO TOLSTOY · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning was about some family background and I wondered if the synopsis was about a different book. Thankfully I made it through that part and kept reading. Once she started describing the day-to-day events occurring in the courtroom my interest peaked and I became engaged with her reality and time as a judge. If you are a hardcore true crime junkie and can can get through the beginning, you'll enjoy reading her journal entries. The legal jargon was kept to a minimum and explained for those readers who may not be familiar with it, but it was detailed enough to get the point across. Overall I found this an interesting narrative and enjoyed reading it.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book to read and review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[Logan Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years back I served on a jury for a criminal case in Los Angeles County. It was a robbery case, not particularly high-profile, but it consumed three weeks of my life and left me with a lingering unease that I couldn't quite name. The verdict felt right, but the process felt strange. Opaque. Like watching a performance with a script I hadn't been given.

Reading Inside the Robe was, for me, something close to therapy.

Mader explains, from the inside, all the things that bewildered me during my jury service. Why the judge seemed to disappear for long stretches of the day. What was happening during those endless sidebar conferences. Why certain evidence was excluded without explanation. What the judge was actually doing during testimony when she appeared to be writing notes. All of it the invisible architecture of a trial, is described here with patience and clarity.