Inclusion Daily Express -- Magazine Looks Behind The Scenes At JRC's Regime Of Control And Pain

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Magazine Looks Behind The Scenes At JRC's Regime Of Control And Pain
August 29, 2007

CANTON, MASSACHUSETTS--The August 20 edition of Mother Jones magazine featured a six-part exposé of the controversial Judge Rotenburg Education Center.

As Inclusion Daily Express has reported over the past several years, the facility has long been criticized by disability and human rights advocates for its use of sleep deprivation, food deprivation, restraints, constant video monitoring, and painful electric skin shocks to control the behavior of children and teenagers, most of which have intellectual disabilities. These techniques are used for all kinds of "behavior problems", from biting to nagging to being "off task".

The privately-run facility is the only one in the United States that is allowed to use such "aversive" treatments. Even prisons, including those that house death row inmates, cannot use these techniques.

Some critics have called JRC a kind of "high school version" of Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

"The harsh reality is we're doing this to innocent children in Canton, Massachusetts," said Massachusetts Senator Brian A. Joyce, who has introduced two new bills that would more strictly regulate the use of aversives at JRC. "If this treatment were used on terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, there would be worldwide outrage."

But the facility, along with its radical founder Dr. Matthew Israel, has its champions, primarily parents -- including another state lawmaker -- whose children have been at the facility for years. They have effectively prevented Massachusetts officials from shutting down JRC, and have encouraged education officials in seven other states to send students with the "most severe behaviors" to the facility. This has helped build JRC to a $56 million enterprise, with Israel receiving a hefty annual salary -- most or all coming from tax-payers.

Behavior experts across the board have condemned JRC's practices as abusive and ineffective. Despite this -- and numerous injuries, deaths, investigations and lawsuits -- Israel continues to defend his "therapies".

Related:
"School of Shock" (Mother Jones)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/07/red/0829b.htm
"Judge Rotenberg Center -- Facility Uses Electric Shock To Change Behavior" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/ma/jrc.htm

Copyright © 2007 Inonit Publishing
Please do not reprint, forward, or post without permission.

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