‘I'm so strong': Film about electric shock use at Mass. center hopes to reach Sundance

Yahoo

2 days ago

As a teenager, Jennifer Msumba had 'very strong self-harm behaviors,' including putting her head through windows. Hoping to get her help, her parents sent her to a center in Massachusetts, where she was subjected to electric shocks daily as punishment.
Nearly 25 years later, she's continuing to speak out — hoping a new documentary will expose the place that left her traumatized.
'That was like being unground in hell,' she recalled about her time at Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton in the documentary's trailer.
JRC, a special needs day and residential facility in Canton, has become known across the country for using electric shock devices, which are attached to the residents at all times, on people demonstrating self-injurious or aggressive behavior.
It is the only facility in the country to use them and has been the center of many advocates' concerns for decades.
'This is 2025, and they are still shocking people,' she said in the documentary's trailer. 'It needs to end.'
The JRC has said the device is 'lifesaving' and that it is important it 'remains available to those for whom all other treatment options have been tried and failed,' the JRC and the JRC Parents Association wrote in a statement after a 2023 court ruling that allowed the devices to continue to be used.
The facility has said that its clients have had behaviors that result in 'profound physical injuries including blindness and mutilation' prior to using the devices. The clients have also injured family members and loved ones.
'Families turn to JRC after exhausting other options because of its record in successfully addressing the most challenging cases. Clients live in the community with appropriate monitoring, and their care is overseen by on-site physicians and nurses to maintain the highest standards of safety and treatment. The program operates under rigorous oversight from state agencies and the courts,' a statement read.
As of 2024, there were more than 300 people who attend or live at JRC, and about 55 people were approved for the devices.
Msumba daydreams of ninjas breaking into JRC to 'save everybody' and shut down the facility.
'But I don't have ninjas,' she said.
Instead, she is making a documentary called 'The Fish Don't Care When It Rains,' which she hopes to submit to Sundance.
'I'm so strong,' she said in the documentary, looking out the car window at the facility she once felt trapped in.
Msumba has autism and said that while her behaviors stopped while she was on the electric shock device, her 'behaviors weren't fixed.'
'They were just manifested differently, into explosions. I would hold it in and then all of a sudden explode,' she told the state Legislature's Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities during a 2023 hearing about her experience attached to the devices at JRC.
She lived at JRC from 2002 until 2009 and was on the shock devices for all seven years. At the beginning of her time there, she said she was shocked daily.
'Crying was also a behavior that I got in trouble for, so I had to cry in secret,' Msumba said in video testimony used in an FDA hearing.
In March 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned electrical stimulation devices (ESDs) used for self-injurious or aggressive behavior. But that decision was overturned.
The FDA warned in its petition that the 'FDA determined that those devices present unreasonable and substantial risks of both physical and psychological injury.'
'The shocks cause pain that has been described as 'extremely painful,' 'excruciatingly painful,' 'like a dentist drilling on an un-anesthetized tooth,' like a 'bulging and a ruptured disc,' like 'a thousand bees stinging you in the same place for a few seconds,' and as 'the most painful thing I've ever experienced,'' the petition states.
But it wasn't just the electric shocks that Msumba said traumatized her.
She also was denied food and 'was one of those stripped of all my clothes, tied to a restraint board and forcefully scrubbed while male staff watched on the video monitors.'
'I did not consent to any of this treatment,' she said.
The center had also taken guardianship away from her parents, the documentary trailer states.
She has since left to live at a different placement in Florida, which she said has helped her. But when she arrived, she went back to her old self-harming behaviors.
'Instead of hurting me, they helped figure out why these things were happening and took the time to do so. They helped me learn to cope and self-regulate, [and] also allowed access to medication that I really needed,' she said.
In 2021, Msumba released a book, 'Shouting At Leaves' regarding her time at the center. She also shares some of her story on TikTok.
'I have a real life now,' she said.
In the documentary trailer, Msumba looks back on her time at JRC.
'I have no idea how I got through all that,' she said.
But she also recognizes her accomplishments since then. Her own music is included throughout the documentary.
Over the years, she's used vlogs to help her understand she needed to use different facial expressions when talking, rather than always looking mad. She also joined a church worship band to help her make friends.
To help with the documentary, she also crowdfunded.
A GoFundMe raised more than $10,000, which was their first goal to get the film funded. The second goal is to raise $20,000 to help 'get a rough cut to Sundance by September.' And the final goal is to raise $25,000 for other festivals and impact campaigns.
'Because of your support, we're now gearing up to film the final scenes of The Fish Don't Care When It Rains next month. This is huge,' the GoFundMe states. 'Every single dollar, share, and word of encouragement helped get us here. Thank you for being part of this movement.'
She's hoping getting the documentary on the right platforms will finally bring 'real conversation' and change.
'They wildly underestimated me,' she said.
More stories about JRC
Sent to school that uses electric shocks, Mass. woman runs for office to protect others
'It's people like me': Protesters rally against electric shock devices at Mass. school
FDA's proposed ban on shock devices used at Mass. school faces new battle
Former student speaks out against electric shock devices used at Mass. facility
DCF sends kids to controversial Mass. facility known for electric shock devices
Read the original article on MassLive.
Solve the daily Crossword