One of the most rewarding things about working for Mother Jones magazine is when you get to see one of our articles make a difference in the legal system. Yesterday the Boston Globe reported that our current issue’s cover story “School of Shock,” which documents how the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) uses electric shock to punish its students, “has reignited efforts to pass legislation limiting the facility’s use of skin shock and aversive therapy.”
Massachusetts state senator Brian A. Joyce, whom we interviewed for the story, has circulated a copy of the piece to every state legislator and is working to push up hearings, originally scheduled for January 2008, on existing legislation that would curb the use of the skin shock device and create a regulatory commission. And as we blogged last month, the Chancellor for D.C. schools opened an investigation into the JRC’s use of electric shock.
