Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
The Judge Rotenberg Center is a residential school in Canton, Massachusetts, United States for children with developmental disabilities, emotional disorders, and autistic-like behaviors, that has been condemned by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture for its use of torture. Before the practice was banned in 2020, the school punished students by administering electric shocks through a device called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator, which was designed by Matthew Israel, the school's founder. While it is now illegal in the United States to use electric shocks as punishment, the JRC continues to employ other means of "aversives" on its students for the purpose of behavior modification.
The Judge Rotenberg Center's behavior modification program uses the methods of applied behavior analysis, and relies heavily on aversion therapy. Aversives used by the JRC include contingent food programs, movement limitation and long-term restraint, seclusion, sleep deprivation, and GED shocks. Reported reasons for administering shocks include: failing to be neat, wrapping one's foot around the leg of a chair, using the bathroom without permission, urinating on oneself after being refused the right to use the bathroom, screaming while being shocked, tensing up in anticipation of being shocked, and attempts to remove the GED. Shocks were given without warning, and were often used while the student was restrained.
Before aversives can be used, approval must be given by the student's parent or legal guardian. Additionally, a judge and a human rights counsel must approve each student's behavior support plan. While JRC claims to rely mainly on positive behavior support and contends that electric skin shocks were used only as a last resort, a 2006 report by the New York State Education Department found that the shocks were used for minor episodes of noncompliance, and that no significant positive behavior support program existed.
The center faced renewed scrutiny in 2012, after a video was released of Andre McCollins, an 18-year-old autistic boy, being restrained face-down on a board and shocked 31 times at the highest voltage setting, He was later hospitalized with third degree burns and acute stress disorder as a direct result of the treatment. There have been repeated attempts to shut down the center by autism rights advocates, disability rights advocates, and human rights advocates. Notable people who have opposed the center include Ari Ne'eman, Shain Neumeier, Lydia Brown, and Brian Joyce. Organizations the oppose the center include the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Disability Rights International, and Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth. Six students have died at the school since it was founded in 1971.
History
The center was founded as the Behavior Research Institute in 1971 by Matthew Israel, a psychologist who trained with B. F. Skinner. In 1994, the center changed its name to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center "to honor the memory of the judge helped to preserve program from extinction at the hands of state licensing officials in the 1980s." JRC moved from its original location near Providence, Rhode Island to its current facilities in Canton, Massachusetts in 1996. In 2011, Israel was forced to resign from his position as director of the Judge Rotenberg Center as part of a deferred prosecution agreement after being indited on criminal charges related to the abuse of two students. Six students have died of preventable causes at the school since it opened in 1971.Behavior modification
The Judge Rotenberg Center provides behavioral treatment using the methodologies of Applied Behavior Analysis. JRC's goals include a near-zero rejection/expulsion policy; active treatment directed exclusively towards promoting normalization; use of rewards and punishments; minimal or zero use of psychotropic medications; video monitoring of staff; and the option to use aversives, including electric shocks on the skin using a device called a Graduated Electronic Decelerator. JRC was the only institution in the US known to use skin shocks as aversives. There is limited peer-reviewed research on the effectiveness and safety of GEDs, Matthew Israel has cited Ivar Lovaas's use of a cattle prod on autistic children as justification for the center's use of electric skin shocks.Use of aversives
used to modify negative and unwanted behaviors include: food deprivation, when up to 80% of residents' daily required caloric intake can be withheld; restraint; solitary confinement; and GED skin shocks. The GED was invented at the Judge Rotenberg Center to administer the shocks by remote control through electrodes worn against the skin. There is medical consensus that positive behavior support through rewards and teaching is both safer and more effective than the use of aversives.Contingent skin shocks
The center has stated that GEDs were only employed to prevent violent of self-injurious behaviors after positive behavioral support had failed. However, a 2006 report by the New York State Education Department found that the device was regularly used when there was no threat of serious physical harm or injury, including:- Failing to be neat
- Wrapping one's foot around the leg of a chair
- Stopping work for more than ten seconds
- Closing one's eyes for more than five seconds
- Minor acts of noncompliance
- Using the bathroom without permission
- Urinating on oneself after being refused the right to use the bathroom
- Screaming while being shocked
- Attempting to remove the GED
Additionally, the report found that the GEDs could be programed to give automated skin shocks in response to targeted behaviors. Shocks were administered at regular intervals, and continued until the targeted behavior stopped occurring. For example, some students were made to sit on a GED cushion seat that would automatically administer skin shocks for the targeted behavior of standing up, while others wore waist holsters that would administer skin shocks if the student pulled a hand out of the holster. In these cases, the devices required no operation by staff. The center did not have approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use the device in this way.
Greg Miller, a teacher's assistant at the JRC, reported that staff were expected to administer shocks without consideration for the reason a resident was misbehaving. "All of these behaviors had to be consequated with a GED electric shock," Miller said. "There were no exceptions—a scream was a scream, a grab was a grab, and we had to follow court-approved orders." Miller said that other staffers warned him to always announce to the class before reaching into his pocket. On one occasion when he did not, four children screamed and he was forced to shock them. Miller said that this kind of scenario occurred "all the time" at the school. Staff were continually observed by cameras to ensure that they administered the prescribed shocks, and feared losing their jobs if they did not.
William Pelham, a behavioral specialist and director of the Center for Children and Families at the State University of New York at Buffalo, argued that the center's use of electric shocks was harmful and unnecessary. "People don't use... shock anymore because they don't need to. It is not the standard of care. There are alternative procedures that do not involve aversives like electric shock."
Controversy and investigations
There has been considerable controversy around the use of the GEDs, including calls from some disability rights groups for legal protections against the use of aversives, including Disability Rights International, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth. Numerous advocates from the neurodiversity and self-advocacy movements, including Ari Ne'eman, Shain Neumeier, and Lydia Brown also repeatedly condemned the Judge Rotenberg Center's use of the GED and other forms of behavioral modification, including restraint and seclusion, in testimony to United States federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies and in public protests.The center is one of few facilities in the United States making use of aversives, and was the only using the GED, in its treatment to punish undesirable behaviors. Concerns about the treatment regimen prompted 2005 and 2006 investigations by the New York State Education Department. The resulting report from the final 2006 visit was highly critical of both processes and oversight at the facility. The report found that shocks were used for minor episodes of noncompliance, and that students were not initially provided with positive behavior supports, contrary to JRC's claims.
In its 2006 Private Special Education School Program Review Report of Findings, the Massachusetts Department of Education found that unsigned Individualized Education Programs were being utilized for students at JRC, and that the school did not have a written policy indicating that it must obtain consent before revising or changing an IEP.
At various points in its history, investigations and lawsuits have been brought against the center's operations.
1979-1982
In 1979, a staff member resigned and asked the district attorney to file child abuse charges against the institute, alleging that he had observed abuse. On the prompting of various former staff, residents, and concerned family members, the state of California launched an investigation into the institution.2002 incident
In 2002, Andre McCollins, an autistic student from New York City, was restrained on a four-point board and shocked 31 times over the course of seven hours. The first shock was given after he did not take off his coat when asked; subsequent shocks were given as punishments for screaming and tensing up while being shocked. In the video, McCollins can be heard shouting “Someone, help me, please!” The JRC staff listed this as a “major disruptive behavior.”The day after the incident, McCollins’ mother had to drive him to the hospitable, as he was unable to speak and had third-degree burns on many parts of his body. The doctor diagnosed him with acute stress disorder, a mild form of posttraumatic stress disorder, which was a direct result of the school's aversive treatment. His mother subsequently claimed that "There is no counseling for the there... and the staff there lied to all these years..." at the time, McCollins was in withdrawal after the school abruptly took him off his anti-psychotics.
In 2011, a video of the incident was released and aired on CNN, leading to McCollins‘ mother launching a civil lawsuit against the center, which was settled in 2012, with both sides claiming to be satisfied with the outcome. The video also caught the attention of the hacker group Anonymous, which announced in a YouTube video that the center and those affiliated with it were targets. Anonymous hacked the JRC's website, retrieved confidential information about individuals and groups associated with it, and posted that information to Pastebin. The leaked information included the names and addresses of the center's sponsors, lobbyists, lawyers, supporters, and founder.
Hoax phone call
After the center received a phone call alleging that two of its residents had misbehaved earlier that evening, staff woke them from their beds, restrained them, and repeatedly gave them electric shocks. One of the residents revived 77 shocks and the other revived 29. After the incident, one of the residents had to be treated for burns. The phone call was later found to be a hoax perpetrated by a former resident who was pretending to be a supervisor. In December 2007, the center was found by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care to have been abusive towards residents and to fail to protect their health.There were two major investigations following the incident, one of which was by the federal government. Massachusetts state authority officials also investigated the school, and all investigating parties viewed the video tapes multiple times before the originals of the surveillance tapes were destroyed on the order of Matthew Israel, the founder of the center, even though there was a court order to keep them. In May 2011, Israel was prosecuted by the Massachusetts Department of Justice and charged with "child endangerment" and "obstructing justice" for misleading a grand jury over the school's destruction of tapes, as well as being an accessory after the fact. In 2011, Israel was forced to resign his position at JRC in a deferred prosecution plea deal with the Massachusetts State Attorney General's office.
As the result of a 2011 ruling by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, governor Deval Patrick’s administration imposed regulations that only residents whose treatment plans approved the GED before that time were still permitted to receive it, but new students and residents enrolling into JRC were no longer allowed, by law, to receive the GED as part of their treatment plan.
Danny Aswad
Danny Aswad was a 14 year old autistic boy who became the first student to die at the JRC in 1981. He died while restrained face-down to a bed. The coroner's report concluded that he had died of natural causes.Vincent Milletich
Vincent Milletich was a 22 year old autistic man who died at the JRC in 1985 of asphyxiation while restrained and wearing a poorly designed unsafe helmet. The judge who presided over a hearing on Milletich's death declared that two staff doctors were negligent for approving the therapy, and declared that the school's director, Matthew Israel, was negligent in authorizing the helmet's use. Milletich's mother said that she did not want charges pressed against the school, but did sue the school for $10 million.Linda Cornelison
Linda Cornelison was a 19 year old non-verbal and intellectually disabled resident of the JRC who died in 1990 of complications related to a gastric perforation. At the time of her death, Cornelison was on a contingent food program where food was withheld as a reward for good behavior. She had been provided approximately 300 calories per day in the days leading up to her death. Cornelison's expressions of pain were interpreted as misbehavior by the JRC staff, who administered 56 physical aversives over five hours before calling an ambulance. Cornelison was unconscious when the ambulance arrived.An investigation of Cornelison's death, conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation, reported that the treatment was “inhumane beyond all reason” and violated “universal standards of human decency”, but failed to find enough evidence to link the JRC to Cornelison's death. However, a Massachusetts court found in 1995 that the JRC had exhibited negligence. At the time of her death, Cornelison had been a resident of the JRC for seven years, and had been subjected to 88,719 aversives.
Opposition
Condemnation for torture
In 2010, the American human rights organization, Disability Rights International, filed an appeal with the office of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, stating they believed the residents were being subjected to human rights abuses due to the center's use of aversives. The then-Special Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, sent what he described as "an urgent appeal to the U.S. government asking them to investigate." In 2013, the Special Rapporteur declared that the use of the GED device violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture.FDA bans the GED
In April 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration announced a public hearing where a panel of neurological devices experts would consider whether or not the FDA should issue a ban of electric shock aversive conditioning devices like the GED. In response, many disability rights advocacy groups gave testimony condemning the GED and asking for a regulatory ban, while the Judge Rotenberg Center brought supportive parents and clinicians to oppose a potential ban. In April 2016, the Food and Drug Administration took the further step of formally proposing a regulatory ban on electric shock aversive conditioning devices. In 2020 the FDA issued the final rule banning the device with only minor changes from the 2016 draft.Attempts to close down the center
First attempt
Soon after the death of Vincent Milletich In 1985, the Massachusetts Office of Children issued an order to close the center, which was then called the Behavior Research Institute. The BRI challenged the order counter-sued the Office of Children. After seeing Matthew Israel's presentation of one of his worst self-harming students, Judge Ernest Rotenberg sided with the BRI. In the settlement that followed, the Office for Children agreed to pay $580,000 to the BRI in legal fees, and a mediator was appointed to deal with further disputes. The head of the Office of Children later resigned. The Behavior Research Institute soon after changed its name to the Judge Rotenberg Center to honor the judge for his ruling.Second attempt
In the mid 1990s, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation launched the second attempt to shut down the center. A judge described the case as a "war of harassment" against Matthew Israel and ordered the state to pay $1.5 million to the JRC in compensation for legal fees and other costs. Additionally, the commissioner of the Department of Mental Retardation was forced to resign.Further attempts
Attempts to shut down or cripple the JRC at the legislative level have been made in every legislative session since the late 1980s. However, none have passed due to a combination of lobbying from the JRC and the protests of parents of residents. At one time, a group of parents sued the state for $15 million, contending that the state's attempts to close the institute violated their children's rights to treatment. Additionally, Massachusetts state Senator Jeffrey Sanchez, whose nephew, Brandon, has been a resident of the JRC since 1992, is a major proponent of the JRC and their practices. Sanchez has repeatedly blocked the passage of legislation that would threaten the center.Massachusetts State Senator Brian Joyce tried repeatedly during his tenure in office to close down the center without success.
Brian Joyce's tenure in office ended in 2018.
There have been repeated attempts to shut down the center by autism rights advocates, disability rights advocates, and human rights advocates. Notable people who have opposed the center include Ari Ne'eman, Shain Neumeier, Lydia Brown, and Brian Joyce. Organizations the oppose the center include the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Disability Rights International, and Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth.
Financials
The Judge Rotenberg center is a for profit institution. It costs $220,000 per year to keep a student at the JRC, which is payed for in tax dollars. The center has sent out promotional materials to various institutions, seeking referrals from school districts, psychiatric hospitals, and the criminal justice system. The JRC has had some success picking up students from New York's juvenile jails and from Rikers Island. As of 2007, the JRC had an annual revenue of $56 million.In 2020, the center received $1.7 million in COVID-19 relief funds.
Overbilling
In 2006, it was found that 14 of the school's 17 psychologists, including the director of psychology, lacked proper licenses. Because the state reimburses the JRC for services rendered by doctors, the JRC had overbilled the state by nearly $800,000. It is not clear if the state was ever able to collect the money.Lobbying
The center regularly lobbies the government to prevent the passage of legislation that could threaten it. In 2010, it spent over $100,000 to lobby against the passage of a bill that may have made the school's use of electric shocks illegal.Salaries
In 2007, Matthew Israel was paid $321,000.Lawsuits
Some parents and former students have filed lawsuits against the JRC.Some parents have filed and won lawsuits against their local school districts to keep their children enrolled at JRC.
At one time, a group of parents sued the state of Massachusetts, contending that the state's effort to close the school was a violation of their children's rights.