A fluorescent gloom pervades the courtroom for Criminal Business of the Third District Court of east Middlesex Country. The ceiling lights have the grayish-white color of dirty institutional bed linen, and colors are sapped, dulled in this civil service twilight. The chalkboard looks olive drab, the cheap wall veneer blends into the dusty browns of the portraits. Even the well-tanned private lawyers look wan and pasty.

Perhaps the gloom is appropriate. Justice is practiced wholesale here, with five to ten cases pushed through hour after hour, day after day. This room on the 13th floor of Middlesex Country Courthouse witness the administrative grinding of the American judicial system; arraignments first and then pre-trial conferences in the late morning and afternoon.

The action centers, naturally enough, on the judge, who sits behind his desk in the front of the room. The assistant clerk, the probation officer, and the lawyers buzz about the judge like workers attending the queen bee. They all mumble, and it is difficult to her the proceedings when sitting in the benches behind the railing that divides the judicial arena from the waiting area.

The courtroom is a study in waiting. This is not high drama. This is high not high drama. This is high tedium, even for the consumers. In the benches in the rear, a few manage to read a newspaper, but no one can concentrate enough to read a book. There is, of course, no talking, as the bailiff is quick to remind anyone who happens to forget. One ends up simply watching, and waiting.

The judge says, "Let's make a deal," and a day begins.

"You were driving an uninsured, unregistered vehicle without a license and you ran red light. Your maximum exposure in this case is 1400 dollar. You can have a trial by jury, you can have a trial before me. But I'm telling you right now that you're not going to jail. I'll dismiss this case for 600 dollars."

A deal is struck.

The defendant agrees to enter a guilty plea, and the judge recites the required litany: "Do you decide to admit to this of your own free will? Do you have a mental disease? Are you under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or medication? Did anybody force you, threaten you, or give you something to make this statements?"

There is more: "Do you understand that you are giving up your right to a trial by jury? Do you understand that you are giving up the right to have a witness testify in your behalf?"

The defendant always understands, of course. He has a limited set of options. He can demand to continue with the case, and take more days off from work, and pay more court fees, and spend more days waiting in the dimly lit back of the courtroom. Or he can pay the fines, do the community service, enroll in the treatment programs, meet the probation officer to lean what a suspended jail term means, and end the case. The unknown is less comfortable than the known, and most defendants choose the latter.

The clerk calls the next defendant. The representative of the Commonwealth tells the judge, "Your honor, after he was stopped by the state police, he refused to hand over his license and registration. He said 'You are going to have to chase me.'"

The defense jumps in, ?"He was angry because there were many other cars passing him, Your Honor, and he felt he was being discriminated against because he was driving a BMW, He is a lawyer, and this is not his normal mode of behavior. We respectfully ask for a continuance without a finding for six months."

The judge gives the defendant a long, cold stare and seems about to strike out with an icy lecture on the responsibility of the Bar and the necessity of upholding laws, but instead he says, "The court finds the defendant guilty. One-hundred dollars, plus 30 dollars in court costs."

Not many of the defendants here today drive BMWs. Most qualify for legal representation at the expense of the public, and many are unemployed.

The cases range from the petty to the serious: traffic violations, larceny under $250, trafficking in cocaine, assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Some crimes don't sound like crimes at all. Possession of burglary tools?