More than a dozen people testified in support of a Massachusetts bill meant to ban the use of electric shock therapies on people with disabilities at a hearing Tuesday in the state house.
The bill prohibits programs “funded, operated, licensed, or approved” by the state from inflicting physical pain on individuals with a “physical, intellectual, or developmental” disability. It also prohibits programs from depriving people with disabilities of resources like “reasonable” sleep, food, and shelter.
Most of the testimony was focused on the use of so-called aversives — a process that administers electric shocks — at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton. The center is the only known facility in the country to use shock therapy to control behavior, a process in which residents carry shock devices in backpacks, controlled by staff members.
Jennifer Msumba said in virtual testimony that her seven years living at the center were marked with “abuse.”
“The staff are abusive, they use the device against the nonverbal students, they threaten them with it to make them do things,” she said. You’re not allowed to say the word “no,” or not follow directions, you will get shocked.”
“There are so many violations happening inside that place that you will never know, because they hide it when people go to visit,” Msumba continued. “They will hide certain students, they will hide certain devices that they’ve developed.”
Msumba concluded her remarks with a plea to the legislators.
“You have to stop this. Because it’s tortuous to your mind and body. Everyone in there is suffering,” she said. “Please.”
Nobody spoke in defense of shock therapy at the hearing. The practice has long pitted family members, who swear it has been the only way to control their loved ones, against critics who call it torture.
JRC officials defended the practice in an email to GBH News on Tuesday evening. “The parents and guardians of clients of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC) will continue to fight to preserve the life-saving electrical stimulation device (ESD) treatment for our loved ones, for whom all other treatment options have been tried and failed.”
“Removing ESDs from the reward-rich behavioral treatment plans is a matter of life or death,” the statement continued. “The 54 individuals who receive ESDs consistent with Massachusetts law have failed all other possible treatments at numerous facilities across the country, including treatment with harmful psychotropic drugs which served only to chemically incapacitate them.”
The center has long succeeded in fending off state and federal opposition to its treatment.
The Food and Drug Administration has been working to ban shock therapy practices since 2020, but the ban has been rejected in federal courts. State legislation has been filed repeatedly in the Massachusetts legislature but so far has not been successful.
Several speakers at the hearing read testimony on behalf of others. Polyxane S. Cobb attended the hearing with her 50-year-old son who she described as “severely disabled.” She said he was able to stop harmful behaviors in the past without the use of aversives.
“I oppose the use of painful aversives,” she said. “I oppose them because they are inhumane, cruel, and a vicious relic of an approach without any scientific validity.”
Samantha R. Fein, a senior community advisor at the Boston-based Disability Policy Consortium, read testimony from former JRC attendees describing physical pain and scars resulting from the shock devices.
Ashten Vassar-Cain, who describes himself as a survivor of institutional abuse, said he has been long traumatized by the practice.
“Aversives did not heal me. Instead, they created fear, shame, pain, and debilitating PTSD. They made me fearful of seeking help from providers, and have resulted in long-term physical and mental health struggles,” Vassar-Cain said. “I never want anyone to suffer this type of abuse.”
