‘School of Shock’ Closer to Closing?

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Back in 2007 Mother Jones published an investigation called “School of Shock” into the Judge Rotenberg Center, a special-needs school that uses electric shocks and food deprivation to discipline its autistic and emotionally troubled students. Based in Canton, Massachusetts, the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) has been a blight to concerned citizens and parents for years. Massachusetts state senator Brian Joyce has introduced legislation several  times over the years to outlaw using electric shocks on children, but so far none have gone into effect (one passed, but was later dropped). Currently, the senator has three bills in the legislature that would reduce or totally ban the use of electric shocks on students.

While Joyce works on a local level, 29 disability organizations sent a letter to 10 federal agencies calling for national legislation outlawing the use of electric shocks. The organizations want to outlaw “painful and dehumanizing behavioral techniques” which they say “violates all principles of human rights.” For the record, not even US prisoners are allowed to be shocked, but a law passed in the mid-1980s said that the JRC could shock children as long as it got special approval by a family court for each student. Reporter Jennifer Gonnerman tried out the JRC’s shock therapy, and wrote that though staff claimed it felt like a bee sting, “when I tried the shock, it felt like a horde of wasps attacking me all at once. Two seconds never felt so long.”

Since Mother Jones‘s story was published in September 2007, shocking kids isn’t the only thing the JRC has gotten negative attention for. In spring 2008, a staffer was arrested for raping another staff member on campus, and this week the Boston Globe reported that JRC was fined $29,600 for allowing 14 unlicensed clinicians to call themselves “psychologists.” Later this month, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Children and Families will hold a hearing to consider Sen. Joyce’s bills on electric shock. Until then, as far as the JRC is concerned, maybe no news is good news.

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That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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