Judge Rotenberg Center
The Judge Rotenberg Center is a pseudoscientific therapeutic institution in Canton, Massachusetts, United States, whose behavior modification program targeted at people with developmental disabilities and emotional and behavioral disorders has been condemned by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture. The center is known for its use of the graduated electronic decelerator, a torture device that administers electric shocks to residents.
The JRC's behavior modification program uses the methods of applied behavior analysis and relies heavily on aversion therapy. Aversives used at JRC include contingent food programs, movement limitation via long-term restraints, sensory deprivation, and GED shocks. While JRC claims to rely mainly on positive behavior support and contends that aversives are used only as a last resort when positive intervention has failed, state reports have repeatedly found that aversives are used for minor infractions, and that no significant positive behavior support programs exist. While the Food and Drug Administration issued a formal ban on the GED in 2020, the device continued to be used on some residents pending an administrative stay for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FDA could not issue a "partial stay" but must issue a blanket ban or no ban at all, thus allowing the JRC to continue using the device. In response to this ruling, congress amended the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. The new amendments allow the FDA to ban a medical device for one use regardless of approval for other uses. This legislation effectively overturned the ruling reached by the D.C. Circuit Court.
The Judge Rotenberg Center was founded by Matthew Israel in 1971 as the Behavior Research Institute. In 2002, JRC staff tied an autistic boy face-down to a board with four-point restraints and shocked him 31 times at the highest amperage setting. The first shock was given for failing to take off his coat when asked, and the remaining 30 shocks were given for screaming and tensing up while being shocked. The boy was later hospitalized with third degree burns and acute stress disorder, but, as neither the law nor JRC policy had been broken, no action was taken against any of the staff. In a 2007 incident, in response to a prank phone call claiming that two residents were misbehaving, JRC staff restrained and shocked the two 29 and 77 times respectively. In 2011, Matthew Israel was arraigned on charges related to the 2007 incident, though the charges were dropped after Israel resigned from his position as part of a deferred prosecution deal with the Massachusetts Attorney General.
There have been repeated attempts to shut down the center by autism, disability, and human rights advocates. Organizations that oppose the center include the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Disability Rights International and Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth. Six residents have died at the institute since it was founded in 1971.
History
Background
In 1957, a group of researchers interested in applications for B. F. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning – an approach to behavior modification based on providing rewards or other reinforcing stimuli – founded the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. In 1967, the group established the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis to focus on the application of applied behavior analysis to the "socially important problems" of people with autism and other developmental disabilities. Researchers for JABA believed that because there was data supporting the effectiveness of the use of aversives on disabled people, use of aversives was "science-based" and that arguments based on human values were irrelevant. In 1974, a dissenting group of researchers founded the Association for the Education and Treatment of the Severely and Profoundly Handicapped, which distinguished itself through its opposition to the use of aversives and involuntary commitment.Matthew Israel enrolled at Harvard University in 1950, where he studied under Skinner and earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees in psychology. In 1966, Israel founded the Association for Social Design, an organization intent on building a network of communes based on the behavior modification principles described in Skinner's utopian novel Walden Two. Under Israel's management, the Boston chapter of the ASD attempted to establish two urban communes – one in 1967 in Arlington, Massachusetts and another in 1969 in Boston's South End – though both dissolved within weeks. In 1970, Israel moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he ran behavior modification programs for children with autism and behavioral disorders at the Patrick I. O'Rourke Children's Center and the Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital.
Foundation of the Behavior Research Institute
In 1971, when federal funding for his program at the O'Rourke Children's Center ran out, Israel established the Behavior Research Institute at the Fogarty Center. As a result of the difficulties he had encountered while attempting to establish a Walden Two community, Israel chose to instead focus his efforts on establishing a school, though he maintained that an autonomous community could eventually develop out of the BRI. In 1972, Israel established the Behavior Research Institute Camp at Matthew Rossi's private home on Prudence Island; the camp initially housed two adolescents: one with autism and Rossi's son, who had schizophrenia. Rossi later wrote in 1976 that Israel's treatment provided no benefit for his son, alleged that he created "miserable situations", and accused Israel of manipulating other parents.In February 1973, after several months of study, the Human Rights Committee of the Rhode Island Planning and Advisory Council on Developmental Disabilities published a report on the BRI raising concerns over the institute's unchecked usage of aversives. However, Massachusetts family court judge Michael DeCiantis ordered the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health to continue to pay the institute's $16,000 tuition, stating that he was particularly impressed by the institute's before-and-after videos. In response to allegations of abuse in the Human Rights Committee report, Rhode Island Behavioral Health Services for Children and Youth asked a team of ABA researchers led by Richard B. Stuart to conduct site visits to the BRI. Contrary to the Human Rights Committee expectations, Stuart's team praised the BRI, reporting that it was effectively run and well conceived, though they recommended better oversight regarding the institute's usage of corporal punishment.
After the BRI raised its tuition in 1976, the state of Rhode Island transferred all eleven children that were attending the institute with funding from the state to the Behavioral Development Center in Providence. The Behavioral Development Center was run by June Groden, who had previously collaborated with Israel before separating due to disagreements over educational practices and the use of aversives. In June 1978, June Ciric wrote to Rhode Island Governor J. Joseph Garrahy criticizing the state's decision to license the institution and alleging cases of child abuse and death at the institute. In response, the state governments of Massachusetts and New Jersey both investigated the institution, concluding that while Ciric's son had been hospitalized as a result of the institute's use of handcuffs, the allegations of abuse were unsubstantiated.
Expansion into and withdrawal from California
Foundation and licensure
On June 17, 1975, the California chapter of the National Society for Autistic Children secured three months of funding for a California branch of the BRI from the North Los Angeles County Regional Center. The decision raised objections from both the NSAC and the Los Angeles County chapter of the NSAC, which had both rescinded their endorsements of the BRI by May 1975. In November, the board of the NLACRC followed suit by unanimously voting to withdraw its support for the BRI and urging its executives to actively oppose funding by the state. On April 30, 1976, the BRI opened its first California group home in Van Nuys without a license to operate a group home or a license to use aversives; in addition, Matthew Israel also did not have a license to practice psychology in the state of California.On December 27, 1976, the board of directors of the NSAC voted to terminate Israel's membership after concluding that Israel had been operating the BRI and practicing as a clinical psychologist without obtaining a license in the state of California. In a contrasting decision, the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance determined in their investigation that "the Board was unable to confirm any violations of law related to the practice of Psychology". On January 17, 1977, the California Department of Health denied Israel's application for a license to operate a group home, writing that Israel had "shown a disregard for the law" by operating his program and practicing psychology without first obtaining a license. The department also criticized the institution's use of aversion therapy, writing that BRI used unjustifiably painful aversives beyond necessity and without adequate scientific backing, guidelines or supervision. The department then issued a cease and desist order against the institution, effective January 31, 1977.
The institution responded to the cease and desist order by formally severing ties with the BRI and re-opening the school as a daycare run as a privately funded parent-owned cooperative, with Judy Weber serving as the corporation's executive director and Matthew Israel serving as a consultant. In August 1977, the renamed BRI of California, with legal representation from former California governor Pat Brown's law firm, applied for funding and a license to operate a group home. At the time, the institution's board of directors also included Mark Adams, an attorney for California governor Jerry Brown. On October 25, the Department of Health granted the BRI of California a one-year license to operate a group home for six children and adults, despite objections from the CSAC. The institution also received the only permit ever granted by the state of California to use physical aversives, and the highest funding rate of any community facility in California at $35,000 a year per child.