David Harris of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute of Race & Justice and I wrote this op-ed for Commonwealth Magazine of how legislative hearings now have little bearing to a civilized process of lawmaking. It begins:

“LAST WEEK WE JOINED 200 other Massachusetts residents for a hearing of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary. The hearing, set to cover sentencing, corrections, and criminal records, had a list of 60 bills under consideration. As is common practice, verbal testimony was limited to three minutes per person, with the committee chairs retaining the right to take people out of turn.” More