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<font size=4><b>TORTURE NOT TREATMENT <br><br>
</font><font size=3>Torture not Treatment: <br>
Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the United States on Children
and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center<br>
<br>
Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
<br><br>
</b>Presented by: <br>
<b>Mental Disability Rights International <br>
</b>1156 15th Street NW, Suite 1001 <br>
Washington, DC 20005 <br>
<a href="http://www.mdri.org/" eudora="autourl">www.mdri.org</a> <br>
<a href="http://jonathanturley.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/usreportandurgentappeal.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://jonathanturley.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/usreportandurgentappeal.pdf<br>
</a> <br>
<b>Executive Summary <br><br>
<i>Torture not Treatment: Electric Shock and Long-Term Restraint in the
United States on Children and Adults with Disabilities at the Judge
Rotenberg Center </i></b>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). <br>
<br>
This report is an <b>urgent appeal </b>to the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Torture or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, by Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). <br>
<br>
<b>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. </b>US law fails to
provide needed protections to children and adults with disabilities.<br>
<br>
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.
<dl>
<dd><b><i>…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. </i></b>– MDRI interview with
psychologist who visited JRC on behalf of the New York State Department
of Education
</dl>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.
<dl>
<dd><b><i>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 </i></b>– Manfred Nowak, United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture
</dl>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.
<dl>
<dd><b><i>The worst thing ever was the BRLs. They try and make you do a
bad behavior and then they punish you</i>. <i>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. </i></b>– MDRI
interview with former JRC student
</dl>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. <br><br>
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.
<dl>
<dd><b><i>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… </i></b>April 2009
report Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation (DMR)
</dl>Despite the overwhelming evidence of abuse at JRC, domestic remedies
to end these abuses have failed. <b>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. <br><br>
</b>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<br><br>
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. <br>
<br>
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.
<dl>
<dd><b><i>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</i></b>. – MDRI interview with former JRC
teacher
</dl>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.<br>
<dl>
<dd><b><i>I was kept in a small room, isolated…one staff and me for a
year and a half. </i></b>– JRC video testimonial in support of GED, JRC
website
<dd><b><i>I was in restraints constantly…I was in an isolated room. Then
I went on the GED </i></b>- JRC video testimonial in support of GED, JRC
website
</dl>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. <br>
<br>
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.
<dl>
<dd><b><i>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.” – </i></b>MDRI interview with former JRC teacher
</dl><b>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 <i>urgent appeal. <br><br>
</i></b>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. <br>
<br>
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. <br><br>
<br><br>
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