About a year ago, an acquaintance told me about abuses routinely occuring within the Judge Rotenberg Center. My initial reaction was a healthy skepticism. I went to the JRC website and found that they were, in fact, administering electric shocks to their patients/students. I looked through the photos and was "creeped out" by the strange world they've created. I couldn't shake the sense that this was pure evil.
I read through their justification papers and I found myself back to being skeptical. The argument is that shocks are better than powerful drugs that simply deaden the mind. That may be so, but the video does not strike me as an exceptional one-time case of abuse within the system. If you haven't seen the video (including the news report supporting it), you should definitely watch it. The trial ended in a settlement, which resolves nothing.
My current sense is that JRC is based on pragmatic ideas that make sense on paper. The application is probably effective in some cases, maybe lots of cases. But if there is widespread torture going on at the center, then even good results mean nothing.
There are rallies being held against the center, but I believe the best approach is to quietly gather all relevant information and determine what is really going on.
Here's a relevant article.
Bruce
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