Canton's Senator Joyce Responds to Latest Judge Rotenberg Center Video Battle

is calling for reform after another video of alleged abuse at the is being prohibited from being released.

Fox 25 News/myfoxboston.com reported that Cheryl McCollins, the mother of a disabled son Andre, is fighting to get a video released that shows her son being abused at the JRC.

"If the world could see the barbaric practices and the cruel, inhumane treatment…they would be appalled," Senator Brian A. Joyce told Canton Patch in an interview. "There would be public outrage."

"The JRC knows that and wants to protect their $50 million annual operation and fought like hell to avoid having that film released," Joyce told Patch.

The mother told Fox 25 News/myfoxboston.com that the video shows her son being shocked over a seven-hour period in October 2002. She is suing the JRC to get the video released.

"After spending three days in a comatose state, not eating or drinking, Andre was taken to (Boston's) Children's Hospital, where he was diagnosed with "acute stress response" caused by the shocks," Fox 25 News/myfoxboston.com stated in its report.

Currently, the video is sealed under a protective order from Norfolk Superior Court, Fox 25 reports.

"My sense is the JRC’s lawyers were extraordinarily clever and earned their millions in fees by once again suppressing the viewing of these tapes," Joyce told Patch.

The senator also noted which the Attorney General investigated in May 2011, were also suppressed.

"It’s critically important that both of these tapes be released and both of these tapes be shown, so the public can see what goes on in this house of horrors," Joyce told Patch.

Massachusetts needs to take "further steps to protect these innocent children," he said.

Longtime advocate and opponent of the JRC George Deabold said the public has a right to see the tapes.

"This treatment of our most vulnerable citizens should not be tolerated," Deabold told Patch. "The public and the parent have a right to see the tape...The Judge Rotenberg Center is run on public funds and the public has the right to see how its money is being used." 

in the past, said the JRC "has claimed to be above-board and squeaky clean for over a decade. That being said, why is it that the center does not want the tapes to go public? The Center in my opinion is in the process of attempting another cover up."

However, JRC Attorney Michael Flammia told Fox that the "perception that electric shock therapy is torture" is "absolutely wrong."

When Fox asked about why the video is not being released, Flammia said, "The matter is in the hands of the courts and we have complete confidence in the court system on that particular matter."