Parents say yes

In 2006 New York, which had 140 kids at the Judge Rotenberg Center, tried to ban electric shock therapy for behavior modification. Parents of some of the NY kids at the center sued to prevent the ban from going into effect. The parents won. I suppose that if you had a child that was out of control to such a degree that they were almost always in a drugged state or were destroying your house, attacking people and just flipping out - and they'd been doing this for years and years - you'd be thankful that their behavior improved considerably after spending some time at the center.

But, NY tried to ban shock treatments because they were dangerous and outdated and they were being used as punishment as well as behavior modification. Using shock treatments as a punishment is not supported by most of the scientific community. The lowest shock given at Rotenberg is considered to be twice what pain researchers say is tolerable for most people.

It is a difficult issue. But, we used to give shock treatments to those suffering from all sorts of mental problems. We stopped that years ago. It didn't work in most cases, was dangerous and is barbaric.

The Judge Rotenberg Center in the news again

I have been writing about the Center since 2006. It is "a special needs day and residential school located in Canton, Massachusetts licensed to serve ages five through adult". It features “aversive” therapy, using pain or other negative stimuli to change behavior; the pain is generated by electric shock. The Center has been charged by a number of government agencies, including the UN, of torturing children. The latest charge is from the FDA, which has accused the Center of under-reporting adverse effects from the device used, using flawed studies to defend its approach, and misleading families about alternative treatments. “FDA has determined that these devices present an unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury that cannot be corrected or eliminated by labeling".

The Rotenberg Center is the only place in the country to still employ such a device, which delivers a painful shock to residents’ skin when they engage in undesirable or dangerous behaviors. Currently, 56 of the center’s 251 residents can receive the shocks. Further, children have been tied down with leg and waist straps to punish them.

The FDA asserts that the devices can cause both physical and psychological harm, including risks of pain, burns, tissue damage, depression, fear and aggression. They may even have led a resident to enter a catatonic state, the agency said. The shocks can worsen the symptoms it purportedly treats. The FDA said peer-reviewed studies and experts make it clear that aversives have been largely replaced by more effective — and humane — approaches to managing behavior.

In the news again

It's time once more for the Judge Rotenberg Center to be in the news. This time the center seems to be the victim of a prank by a former resident. The Center, which treats about 250 children and adults who are autistic, retarded or emotionally disturbed, operates from a central facility that monitors surveillance cameras in satellite facilities.

One of their satellite homes received a phone call in the middle of the night instructing the staff there to administer shock treatments to two of the residents who, the caller said, had misbehaved earlier. The staff was inexperienced, overworked and new to the Center. This was not the first time they had received a call from the central office. However, apparently there was no mechanism in place to verify that the call actually came from the central office. So, two teen-aged residents were given the center's standard shock treatments. One was shocked 77 times, the other 29 times. One had to be taken to the hospital for first degree burns.

The Center has survived two attempts by the state to shut it down. It's likely they will survive another one.

It Will Not Go Away

The Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., is once more in the news. This time it is the subject of an Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture by an organization known as Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI). Similar appeals have been made to authorities in New York, Massachusetts and California; people have been upset with the Center almost since the day it opened its doors. But the Center has beaten all of these appeals back.

The Center treats those who can find no help in conventional settings. It is the last hope for parents whose children are really and sadly out of control through no fault of their own. The Center's approach is a rather unique form of behavior modification: torture. The MDRI is correct. What is done to these kids is torture. Yet, the Center has been able to stay in business for more than forty years despite its periodic resurgence in the news because of what seems like barbaric treatment of its patients. Why is that?

The End of an Era

Matthew Israel, founder of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, faces criminal charges with regard to a prank by a former resident which resulted in up to 77 shock treatments being given to two residents of the center back in 2007. The charges are based on destruction of evidence, i.e., the surveillance tapes of the night in question. Israel has been at the center a long time and, earlier this month, he announced his retirement (at age 77). He has left quite a legacy; parents of most of the residents love him, the scientific and mental health establishment despise him.

Torture?

Most people would consider electric shock treatment as torture, but the parents of students at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center do not. You can understand why because the parents feel that the treatment their kids are receiving at the Center is the first time that the kids have been under control. I've written before about the Center and each time I've wondered what I would do if my child behaved the way most of the Center students have before going to the Center.

I write today because, once more, the Center is in the news; this time for its lobbying efforts last year. The Center spent $100,000 in its efforts to kill a bill that it felt would ban the treatment they feature. Since the Center's revenue is about $50,000,000, $100,000 is not a lot of money. Yet, the Boston Globe discusses the lobbying in a major article.

Perhaps, what really makes the case against the Center's treatment is that it is the only school in the U.S that uses electric shock therapy as a behavior modification technique. The following is a sound objection to the practice: “If it was so good, everybody else would be doing it,’’ said Barbara Trader, executive director of TASH, a disabled rights group in Washington.

What does 'directed' mean?

You may remember the latest incident at the Judge Rotenberg Center where two teenagers were shocked an ungodly number of times based on 'orders' from a former student at the center. Well, the state's Disabled Person Protection Commission asked to see the videotapes that the center had made of the events at the house where the students lived. The center refused because they feared adverse publicity. The Commission 'directed' the center to retain the tapes as there would be a State Police investigation. The Center destroyed the tapes, which leads one to ask the question of what the center was trying to hide.

It is possible that the PR fallout from the destruction of the tapes may be worse than that which would have resulted from keeping the tapes.

Shock Treatment

A bill to control the shock treatment therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center is in the legislative hopper for the current session of the Massachusetts House. The bill proposes to limit shock treatments to those cases where the student might hurt himself or another; the application of shock treatments for minor offenses, such as swearing, would be prohibited. Need I say that the Center opposes this bill?

At present, about 60% of the students at the center receive shock treatments about once a week.

The Judge Rotenberg Center is still active

I wrote fairly often about the center from 2007 to 2011. In 2011 the founder of the center retired when he was facing criminal charges stemming from the center's champining of “aversive” therapy, using pain or other negative stimuli to change behavior. Its signature approach is to apply a two-second electric shock to students’ skin. The center has received a number of negative reports from federal and state authorities as well as the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on torture.

Although the center is located in Massachusetts, its primary market is New York City; 90% of the center's students are from the city. including 29 who enrolled this year. It costs the city's taxpayers $30 million a year. The city and the state have tried various means to prevent its students from going to the center, but they have been unsuccessful. 

Sometimes you do need a license

That is if you want to call yourself a psychologist in Massachusetts. You can have all the degrees and experience in psychology in the world but in this state you need a license. The Judge Rotenberg Education Center did not follow this practice so they will have to return some of the fees they earned for services given by their psychologists. It may be as much as $800,000, which, based on the Center's revenues, is chickenfeed.

Over the past five years the Center has received more than $2,000,000 from the state for the services of their psychologists. If they were not licensed in Massachusetts, the state would have paid the Center less money for the same services.

A difficult choice

The Department of Education of New York has issued a damning report on the Judge Rotenberg Educational Research Center in Canton, MA. The center is a last stop for students who have not been able to function in the normal school system. Some are autistic, some mentally ill and some are just very, very difficult to control. The school uses a Gradual Electronic Decelerator (GED) as one of its primary treatments for the students. The GED is "a device that produces a temporary, painful (but harmless) skin-sting that is produced by passing electric current through a small area on the surface of the skin for 2 seconds." It is "used only with court approval and parental consent".

Among the charges made in the report are:

• punishment is the main behavior modification technique
• the GED is used for minor issues, such as swearing
• students live in an atmosphere of pervasive fears and anxieties
• regular or special education is limited
• more than two-thirds of the people who directly care for the students at the center have only a high school education
• only six of the 17 mental health clinicians are licensed as psychologists.

A report like this is not new to the Center. It has been enmeshed in controversy practically since its beginning in the 1970s. The Center claims that the GED is better than the alternatives, i.e., psychotropics, warehousing and restraint. And there are many safeguards starting with approval by the parents and the courts. Many parents are very supportive of the Center, feeling that it saved their child's life.

New York gave the Center a good review last September. This current review, which took place in April and May seems to have been prompted by a charge made by the mother of a former student from New York. New York's reason for the change in the tenor of this report is that it was more in-depth and included an unannounced visit to the Center.

Who knows who is right here? Or what you would do if you had a child who could not be helped by the system. What does strike me is the money involved. The cost to send someone to the Center is about $200,000 per year. There are 250 students. That works out to annual revenue of $50,000,000. That's a lot of money.