Last week, after several years of promising to do so, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its official ban on the use of electric shock devices used on Disabled people at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts. This rule was published on March 6, 2020 and after 30 days will go into effect on April 6, 2020.

The Judge Rotenberg Center views this practice as “treatment”, but the Disability community calls it torture of our community. People at this facility have electrodes strapped to their bodies 24 hours a day, in order that painful shocks can be delivered by staff armed with remote control activators. All JRC residents, the majority of whom are reported by visitors to be people of color and most of whom are from outside Massachusetts, are subjected to intense behavioral controls, and contingent shock is the most egregious of the abuses. The devices are also known to malfunction in common conditions such as the steam after a shower, and to sometimes be activated by the wrong button. After the rule goes into effect, JRC will have 6 months to transition people off the devices.

CDR wants to thank all Disability Rights activists who participated at the many protests including the ones held in Boston in the fall of 2016 and the close to 2 week ADAPT camp that was outside former FDA Administrator Scot Gottlieb’s Washington D.C. residence in March 2018. Through our efforts, we have ensured these regulations have finally been published and in six months the Judge Rotenberg Center will be required to finally #stoptheshock!