The Judge Rotenberg Center: 50 Years of Abuse
taken from this reddit post.
TRIGGER WARNING: This post details a long history of graphic child abuse and torture of the physical and psychological varieties.
Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, a residential school for people with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autism spectrum disorders, in Canton, Massachusetts, USA. This organization has a colourful history to say the least, and given recent news, I've decided to do a bit of a summary
Origins
Founded in 1971 in Providence, Rhode Island, by Matthew Israel. It was originally named the Behavior Research Institute, and started with just two residents, one autistic, the other schizophrenic. In 1975 the BRI opened group homes in Massachusetts, and in 1976 it opened a branch in California.
The Behavior Research Institute of California / Tobinworld
When it opened the California branch in 1975, it did not have a license to operate as a group home, Israel did not have a license to practice psychology in the state of California, and the branch lacked a license to use aversives. This did not stop them. Eventually in 1977 they applied and were rejected for licenses and were scheduled to shut down. The day following their shut down a group of parents reopened the institute as a co-operative with Israel officially being consultant instead of Director, and they applied for the appropriate licenses again. The then-governor of California, Pat Brown, assisted them to gain their licenses, and they were the only group home ever permitted to use "physical aversives" on it's residents. They were awarded $35,000 a year per child by the state, the highest rate for any community facility in California.
July 17, 1981 at the California branch staff restrained 14-year-old Danny Aswad in the face-down position on his bed. He died in that position. An autopsy report stated he died of 'natural causes', however this prompted California to investigate the branch, discovering countless physical and psychological abuses at the facility. Residents were beaten, restrained, humiliated, and starved, sprayed with hoses, refused access to bathrooms, pinched till they screamed, and given "behavior rehearsal lessons" where they were instructed to destroy property, and then punished with spraying for it. Staff were trained in how to conceal bruises on residents from family members and inspectors. This investigation resulted in the facility being forbidden from using anything more punishing than a water spray, and forbade the founder Matthew Israel from stepping foot on the property.
At some point a few years later, this branch was renamed Tobinworld, and was taken over Judith Weber, who later would become Israel's second wife (she was a mother of one of the former residents).
October 1991, 9-year-old Derek Collins was restrained prone in a school bus by a Tobinworld aide and required emergency resuscitation and hospital care. Collins was admitted to Huntington Memorial Hospital in critical condition with possible brain damage. The aide pled guilty for felony child abuse.
In 2014 a mother sued Tobinworld after she alleged her 7-year-old child was regularly abused there, being denied snacks or the ability to use the restroom. She alleged in the preceding year that the facility's vice-president and three aides restrained her child, kicked his feet out from under him causing him to fall and get a bloody nose, and then when he cried they wrapped his face in plastic, causing him to choke on his blood.
In 2016 a 9-year-old boy is restrained by the arms and legs and then sucker punched in the face by a 26-year-old aid. It had been recorded and leaked by another employee who had said it was the third time they had recorded such an event.
These latter two events prompted an investigation where it was found that Matthew Israel had been illegally working at the school again without proper clearance, without the authorities being informed, without a background check, and without tuberculosis tests. The State Education board then closed down one of the branches of Tobinworld in 2016. The school was finally fully shut down in 2019.
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Institute
In 1979 one resident told investigators she desperately wished to leave the school, and her worst fear was an indefinite future in JRC. She contemplated suicide daily.
In 1979 two reports by NY State authorities found the BRI was conducting physical and mental abuse, and that the methods were only effective as a means of coercion with residents relapsing into their old behavior as soon as the immediate threat of punishment was gone.
In 1983, despite corporal punishment being illegal in Massachusetts, the institute was granted special permission for them.
July 23, 1985, 22-year-old Vincent Milletich had been acting out. He was restrained in a chair with plastic tie cuffs on his hands and feet, a mask was placed over his face and a helmet put on, and earphones were put on him to play white noise continuously. He died from asphyxiation. The BRI were not found to have caused his death, however were found negligent for approving the therapy and carrying it out without sufficient supervision. Later in the year, the State Office for Children ordered the BRI to close, or to stop using aversives. There was uproar among disability advocates demanding the school be shut, and controversy over the therapies and why it's residents seemingly 'regressed' without them, with Israel stating such regression in the absence of these interventions showed the effectiveness of them. Israel then took one of his most self-abusive students before Judge Ernest Rotenberg in 1986 and detailed her history. Rotenberg ruled she was unable to make her own treatment decisions, but if she were, she'd choose to stay at the BRI. The State Office for Children paid the BRI $850,000 and they were permitted to remain open and continue using aversives *as long as each student's treatment plan was approved by the probate court*. A year later, June 26, 1987, 29-year-old Abigail Gibson died of cardiac arrest.
1990, Linda Cornelison died. She was nonverbal and one day on the school bus doubled over clutching her stomach. A nurse thought her illness was an act. She was returned to her BRI-run home and given 13 spatula spankings, 29 finger pinches, 14 muscle squeezes, and was forced to inhale ammonia five times. She died the next morning in hospital due to complications related to a gastic perforation. Her mother reported that she had never had suffered gastrointestinal problems before. The Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation found that although the school violated the most basic standards of decency, they were not derelict in their care of her, nor had the administration of aversives killed her.
Around the same time, the school began using the "Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibit System" (SIBIS for short) invented in 1984. It was designed to detect activities such as headbanging and administer eclectic shocks. Shortly afterwards Israel went to the manufacturers of the SIBIS and asked for a more powerful version, as "one student was shocked by the SIBIS over 5000 times a day without producing the desired change in behavior". The manufacturers refused, so Israel designed a system himself in December 1990, called GED (graduated electronic decelerator) that delivered a stronger shocker lasting ten times as long. The FDA cleared the device as they considered it "substantially equivalent to the SIBIS". By 1992 Israel was already phasing out the older GED for his new GED-3a and GED-4, which delivered even stronger shockers. He had never cleared them for use with the FDA.
In 1994 the center changed it's name to the Judge Rotenberg Center.
In 2000 the FDA incorrectly informed the JRC that it was qualified for exemption from registration of the GED-3a and GED-4, and only recognized their error in 2011 and demanded the immediate cessation of their use. They continued to be used till 2020.
The SIBIS provides a 3.5mA shock for 0.2 seconds. The GED-1 produces a 30mA shock for 2 seconds, and the GED-4 produces a 90mA shock for 2 seconds. A typical cattle prod produces a maximum shock of 10-20mA for under a second. The weakest GED's shock strength is still considered about twice the threshold that pain researchers consider tolerable to most adult humans. As of 2010 a GED-5 was in development.
In 2000 the school was receiving $18 million from the state, and in 2006 that increased to $56 million. Matthew Israel was making $321,000 a year.
In 2006 a mother sued the center claiming it had mistreated her son while he was wearing the GED. He was taken out of the school and improved significantly, although for a period after he left he had to remain in a psychiatric ward, and thought cameras still followed his movements and that he might be shocked for misbehaving.
A former staff psychologist said around 2001 the school policy switched from education and treatment to simply keeping students in line, "Israel couldn't stand them not behaving in a perfectly controlled way". Another said the school would punish not only negative behaviour, but actions they perceived as precursors to it. Face slappers would be shocked for raising their hand. Refusing a teacher's order, or talking out of turn were other such precursors.
Every room in the facility had since 1975 a complete setup of surveillance cameras and microphones monitored day and night, the purpose being to catch behaviours staff may have missed and phone them to inform them punishment needed to be handed out. It also had the dual unwritten purpose of monitoring staff members, if they refused to hand out punishments then they would be written up in "Performance Improvement Opportunities" documents, and firing staff who crop up in these too frequently.
One ex-staff member described having to shock people for an array of reasons: stopping work for more than 20 seconds, closing eyes for more than 5 seconds, a girl with cerebal palsy was shocked for moaning and reaching out to hold a staff member's hand. Another was shocked for urinating in their pants, they had been asking to go to the bathroom for over two hours. Yet another was shocked simply because they complained about another student being shocked. The staff member had been instructed to always announce what they planned to reach for in their pocket. One time they forgot and four kids screamed, they had to be punished with an electric shock.
In 2006 it was found that 14 of the 17 resident psychologists lacked proper licenses. It is believed JRC overbilled the state by nearly $800,000 by avoiding hiring licensed psychologists and not declaring that. That money was still uncollected a year later.
In 2007 it was reported the facility had a high turnover, among all staff including psychologists. A group of 52 trainees had been taken in and after three months only 2 remained employed there.
August 26, 2007, Arthur, a student who had been missing for two weeks, called a staff member and identified himself as a worker in DVR (the surveillance room) stating that shocks needed to be given to a resident for behaviours that had occurred before the night shift. The staffer handed the call over to a second staff member, the senior-most on shift at the time, as this seemed to be a breach of policy (punishments shouldn't be given for behaviour that happened over two hours preceding), however the second staffed was one of this recent batch who had only been at the facility for a few months, so handed back to the first staffer. The first staffer proceded to provide GED shocks while the student was in bed, and the staff on shift were instructed by Arthur to use the more potent GED 4, and did so for the rest of the night. The student in question received three further shocks. The student complained to the second staffer, saying the first was doing the wrong thing. The staffers still on the phone with Arthur continued to shock the student. The first staffer went to get another GED to shock the boy's stomach as the leg electrode battery seemed to be no working. The student is seen on camera speaking to the second staffer asking them to find out what is going on, and to call his clinician. Four other staffers are awake at this point, but do not intervene. Arthur seized the replacement GED's batteries in his hand and refused to relinquish them, and after a half hour confrontation was put on a four point restraining bed. He was no longer resisting, and told one of the staffers "let them know I'm being compliant". Staff are meant to tell student's the reasons they have received a shock, however while restrained a GED 4 shock is given without reason. A second GED 4 shock is given for physical aggression. Arthur is heard saying "let them rotate me" (hourly staffers are required to rotate electrodes to prevent burns on the skin, the facility denied that GEDs injured students, however burns were frequency enough that staff at the facility had a name for students going 'off the machine', a "GED holiday"). Arthur receives five more shocks. A ninth shock is given, and the DVR records an audible sob, not from the student, but the second staffer who had to leave the room as he "thought he would either cry or throw up if he stayed". Ten more shocks were given with accompanying reasons. The 20st shock was given without reason. The 21st shock was given for refusing to follow instructions. Nine further shocks were given, bringing the total to 30 GED-4 shocks in a single day. Staffers went to get approval from a psychologist to perform further shocks. Shocks continued. The 37th was given for attempting to remove the device, as were the 38th and 39th shocks. Shocks 50, 51, 52, and 53, were given for "verbal threats to destroy". In total between 70 and 77 shocks were given. After this was all done, Arthur's skin was red, he was defeated, he complained later that night of a racing heart, dry mouth, and difficulty breathing. He described feeling as if he was about to have a stroke. Staff took no action to help him. He suffered first degree burns. Arthur remained at JRC, although was on a "GED holiday".
MDRI Appeal to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
In 2010 the Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) appealed to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, a PDF copy of the 67 page report can be seen **[here](https://abcnews.go.com/images/Nightline/HT_US_Report_4_30_10_100630.pdf)**. It recounts it's own extensive set of equally, and in several cases worse tales of events which occurred at the facility.
Students being restrained for hours or intermittently for days, or even for weeks or months. One case of a student being almost strapped in a chair most of the time for two whole years. A student suffering from seizure disorders and a mild developmental disability, was put in chair restraints most of the time for a few months. He had to wear diapers, he was a teenager and had never had to wear diapers before and was very capable of going the toilet, but they didn't want to untie him to let him use the bathroom. They then escalated him to the GED too. Restraints, strict schedules, and social isolation may have been used as a form of psychological coercion in multiple cases to encourage students to consent to the GED. Another student was found to have severe ulcers in the location where the GED shocker was placed.
A non-verbal deaf and blind girl was rocking and moaning, she was shocked for moaning. She was crying because she had a broken tooth.
The aforementioned cases of students being demanded to misbehave and then shocked also has another variant. Staff would surprise students with mock attacks and threatened stabbings, to compel them to respond with aggression, fear, or screaming. They would then be intensely shocked. This specific excerpt seems scarily reminiscent of a book which caused me to subsequently stumble into and learn about the JRC on the internet - [A Clockwork Orange](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel\)), perhaps this is not entirely surprising, the story was created around questioning the idea of free will, and of the theory of Behavioralism, which very much is the theoretical birthplace of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA).
All residents were forced to be vegan, with restricted diets such as mashed food with liver powder. Even up to 2010 (and possibly beyond), withholding of food was a punishment used. Removal of furniture from rooms was another punishment, one student entered with a beautiful room complete with TV and stereo, and after a month had merely a mattress on the floor.
Socialisation with staff members was forbidden. Socialisation with other students was a "reward" which had to be "earned". Education was often by staring at a computer facing the wall using self-teaching software all day long.
As of 2010 at least 6 deaths in total had occurred at the facilities. For over 2 decades Republican Jeffrey Sanchez's nephew was at the facility, and was the young man who received over 5,000 SIBIS shocks a day, Jeffrey Sanchez continually defended the facility and defeated bills aimed at curtailing it.
The school was a 'non-profit' and as such tax exempt, in 2007 it had spent $2.8 million in legal fees to keep it open. Twice regulatory departments had tried to shut it down, but it was either shuffled to another department or the head of the department forced to step down, with hefty payouts to JRC each time. They were a major customer at Rudy Giuliani's law firm.
In 2009 the JRC was required to be recertified for Level 3 Punishments, a team consisting of two psychologists, a psychiatrist, and the Department of Mental Retardation's Director for Human Rights and assistant general council assessed the facility and brought numerous findings of violations, abuses, and concerns. The state still recertified the facility in spite of the findings of this report.
**In 2010, the then Special Rapporteur at the UN, Manfred Nowak, responded to the appeal, saying he had "no doubts about it" being torture.** The subsequent UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, again raised serious concerns about the ongoing activity at JRC in 2012.
In 2011 Israel was indicted on charges of child endangerment, obstructing justice, and acting as an accessory after the fact. He signed a plea deal where he resigned his position at JRC to avoid prosecution.
In 2014 a video was leaked of a shocking in 2002, [Warning: It is a very distressing video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcxpGKctZMs)
The Last Year and a bit...
In 2020 the FDA [took the rare step to ban all "electrical stimulation devices (ESDs) used for self-injurous or aggressive behavior"](https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-safety/medical-device-bans). This sort of blanket ban is a rare final step for the FDA, only having occurred twice before, both times for medical devices which presented no or negligible benefit but had extreme associated risks even with proper use. [A more extensive ruling by the FDA is found here](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/06/2020-04328/banned-devices-electrical-stimulation-devices-for-self-injurious-or-aggressive-behavior). The ban was effective April 6, 2020.
COVID and ongoing court battles meant that none of the people on the GED devices would be required to transition off it until further legal decisions were made.
[July, 2021, a federal appeals court gave an exemption from the FDA ban to the JRC.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-judge-rotenberg-center-uses-electric-shocks-on-students-now-a-court-says-thats-totally-fine)
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