[Ppnews] Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint on Children and Adults with Disabilities

[Political Prisoner News]

TORTURE NOT TREATMENT

Torture not Treatment:
Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the 
United States on Children and Adults with 
Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center

Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture

Presented by:
Mental Disability Rights International
1156 15th Street NW, Suite 1001
Washington, DC 20005
www.mdri.org
http://jonathanturley.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/usreportandurgentappeal.pdf

Executive Summary

Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and 
Long-Term Restraint in the United States on 
Children and Adults with Disabilities at the 
Judge Rotenberg Center is the product of an 
investigation by Mental Disability Rights 
International (MDRI) into the human rights abuses 
of children and young adults with mental 
disabilities residing at the Judge Rotenberg 
Center (JRC) (formerly known as the Behavior 
Research Institute) in Canton, Massachusetts, United States of America (US).

This report is an urgent appeal to the United 
Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture or other 
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or 
Punishment, by Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI).

We request that the Special Rapporteur initiate 
an inquiry into the abusive practices perpetrated 
against the residents of JRC and licensed by the 
State of Massachusetts. MDRI contends that the 
severe pain and suffering perpetrated against 
children and adults with disabilities at JRC 
violates the UN Convention against Torture. US 
law fails to provide needed protections to 
children and adults with disabilities.

This urgent appeal documents human rights abuses 
at what is called a special needs school. The 
fact that the intentional infliction of pain to 
punish students for certain behaviors is called 
treatmen - for children and adults with 
disabilities - does not render these practices 
acceptable, necessary or legal. At JRC, pain is 
the treatment. JRC practices a form of aversive 
therapy that is unique in the United States. 
JRC‘s practices are based on a theory of 
behaviorism that mental disabilities can be 
extinguished by an elaborate system of rewards 
and punishments for acceptable or unacceptable 
behavior. To implement this program, authorities 
at JRC intentionally inflict severe pain on 
children with disabilities entrusted to their 
care. The maltreatment of children and 
adolescents with disabilities at JRC constitutes 
both physical and psychological abuse, couched in 
the name of treatment. The treatment at JRC is 
punishment. Children are subject to electric 
shocks on the legs, arms, soles of their feet, 
finger tips and torsos – in many cases for years, 
and for some, a decade or more. Electric shocks 
are administered by a remote-controlled pack 
attached to a child‘s back called a Graduated 
Electronic Decelerator (GED). The shocks, which 
last 2 seconds each, are so strong as to cause 
red spots or blisters to the skin. Some students 
have received dozens – even hundreds – per day.

The level of shock is unbelievable, very painful 

. No other class of citizen in the United States 
could be subjected to this. You could not do this 
to a convicted felon. – MDRI interview with 
psychologist who visited JRC on behalf of the New 
York State Department of Education
The United Nations Convention against Torture and 
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or 
Punishment, ratified by the US in 1994, prohibits 
torture without exception – even if it takes 
place in a school or a medical establishment and 
is justified by authorities as a form of treatment.
By reframing violence and abuse perpetrated 
against persons with disabilities as torture or a 
form of ill-treatment, victims and advocates can 
be afforded stronger legal protection and redress 
for violations of human rights – Manfred Nowak, 
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
Additionally, children are shackled, restrained 
and secluded for months at a time. Social 
isolation and food deprivation as punishment is 
common. Mock and threatened stabbings – to 
forcibly elicit unacceptable behaviors which then 
result in electric shock punishments (known as 
Behavioral Research Lessons or BRLs) - have been 
reported to MDRI and state regulatory bodies as well.
The worst thing ever was the BRLs. They try and 
make you do a bad behavior and then they punish 
you. The first time I had a BRL, two guys came in 
the room and grabbed me – I had no idea what was 
going on. They held a knife to my throat and I 
started to scream and I got shocked. I had BRL s 
three times a week for stuff I didn t even do. It 
went on for about six months or more. I was in a 
constant state of paranoia and fear. I never knew 
if a door opened if I would get one. It was more 
stress than I could ever imagine. Horror. – MDRI 
interview with former JRC student
Behaviors deemed aggressive – getting out of a 
chair without permission – and behaviors referred 
to as minor and non-compliant behaviors – raising 
your hand without permission – are all punishable 
by electric shocks, restraints and other punishments.

MDRI‘s findings are consistent with decades of 
reports by numerous state agencies, legal and 
disability advocates, media reports, first-hand 
accounts and interviews of former students, 
parents of students, staff, and in many cases, 
JRC‘s own informational website.
It is imperative that JRC devise a protocol for 
reassessing the effectiveness of the aversive 
interventions [shock] once they have been tried 
for 5 years with only limited effectiveness
 
April 2009 report Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation (DMR)
Despite the overwhelming evidence of abuse at 
JRC, domestic remedies to end these abuses have 
failed. And in some cases, states have adopted 
regulations permitting the use of painful 
aversives, and the courts have upheld such 
regulations which undermine the protection of 
children and adolescents at JRC from cruel and inhuman treatment or torture.

The prohibition against torture under 
international law is reserved for the most 
egregious acts. To rise to the level of torture, 
an act must meet each of four criteria identified 
in article 1 of the UN Convention against 
Torture. Some practices documented at JRC meet each of these elements of

torture because (1) the pain and suffering 
inflicted is severe; (2) this pain is inflicted 
intentionally; (3) the infliction of pain is for 
a purpose that is coercive or discriminatory; and 
(4) these practices are conducted with the 
consent or acquiescence of public officials.

The use of electric shock or long-term restraint 
would never be tolerated on individuals without 
disabilities. The discriminatory nature of JRC‘s 
practices becomes clear when they are compared to 
strikingly similar practices widely understood to 
constitute torture or ill-treatment.
One girl who was blind, deaf and non-verbal was 
moaning and rocking. Her moaning was like a cry. 
The staff shocked her for moaning. Turned out she 
had broken a tooth. Another child had an accident 
in the bathroom and was shocked. – MDRI interview with former JRC teacher
To the best of our knowledge, JRC is the only 
facility of any kind in the United States – and 
perhaps indeed in the world – which uses 
electricity, combined with long-term restraint 
and other punishments, to intentionally cause 
pain to its children with behavioral challenges and calls it treatment.

I was kept in a small room, isolated
one staff 
and me for a year and a half. – JRC video 
testimonial in support of GED, JRC website
I was in restraints constantly
I was in an 
isolated room. Then I went on the GED - JRC video 
testimonial in support of GED, JRC website
Long-term effects from electric shock can 
reportedly include muscle stiffness, impotence, 
damage to teeth, scarring of skin, hair loss, 
post-traumatic stress disorder, severe 
depression, chronic anxiety, memory loss and sleep disturbance.

Physical restraints combined with electric shocks 
are also used as a form of aversive treatment. 
While receiving electric shocks, children can be 
tied down in four-point restraints – sometimes in 
a prone, face-down position. In testimony posted 
on JRC‘s website, children and parents have 
reported that restraints may be used 
over-and-over for months at a time. One mother 
reported to MDRI that her child was held in restraints for two years.
If students are non-compliant or aggressive, 4 or 
5 staff will wrestle kids to the floor and strap 
them to a board face down and then shock them. I 
have seen it more than once. They yell “help” and 
“send someone.” They could be there like that for 
12 hours or more until they “complied.” – MDRI 
interview with former JRC teacher
Because these abuses have continued unabated for 
almost four decades and because the use of 
domestic remedies has been unsuccessful in 
stopping these human rights abuses, MDRI submits 
this document to the office of the United Nations 
High Commissioner for Human Rights and the 
Special Rapporteur on Torture and to the 
Committee Against Torture (CAT), as an urgent appeal.

The dehumanization and depersonalization of 
children at JRC by way of state-sanctioned 
punishment with electric shocks, 4-point 
restraint boards, mock assaults, food 
deprivation, shock chairs and shock holsters 
fosters an environment ripe for abuse and one 
that would not be tolerated – especially against 
children - in any other setting.

MDRI also calls on the Obama Administration and 
the U.S. Department of Justice to take immediate 
action to end the abuses against children with 
disabilities living at JRC. MDRI calls for a 
total and immediate ban on the use of electricity 
and long-term restraints to punish children. 
Under international human rights law, the United 
States is obligated to investigate and prosecute 
acts of torture or inhuman and degrading 
treatment and to provide reparations for 
individuals subject to these practices.






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