The latest issue of Mother Jones has a rather disturbing cover story about the Judge Rotenberg Center, a school in Massachusetts for troubled kids--autistic, bipolar, schizophrenic, you name it--that uses electric shocks, food deprivation, and other "aversive therapy" to punish its students, some as young as nine. (In one infamous incident, a twelve-year-old received 5,000 shocks in a single day.) The surprising bit is that the state legislature has been loath to shut the school down, because parents insist that the methods work. It's worth reading in full, as is this Village Voice piece on the center.
--Bradford Plumer