Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
Encyclopedia
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JRC, formerly known as the Behavior Research Institute) is a school for special needs
students that operates in Canton, Massachusetts
, providing applied behavior analysis
and educational services to children and adults with severe developmental disabilities and emotional or behavior disorders, as well as providing respite care
to their primary caregivers. The Center is one of very few that makes extensive use of aversives
, including electric shock
and withholding of food, in its treatment and behavioral interventions.
who trained with B. F. Skinner
. In 1994 the center changed its name to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center "to honor the memory of the judge [who] helped to preserve [the] program from extinction at the hands of state licensing officials in the 1980’s." It has 900 employees and annual revenues exceeding $56 million, charging $220,000 a year for each student.
The Judge Rotenberg Center treatment goals include a near-zero rejection/expulsion policy, active treatment with a behavioral
approach directed exclusively towards normalization, frequent use of behavioral rewards
and punishment
, video monitoring of staff and the option to use aversives
, the most controversial of which is the use of electric shock
s. The final item has provoked considerable controversy and has led to calls from several disability rights groups to call for human protection from behavior modification
, behavior therapy, and applied behavior analysis
approaches.
as part of their intensive, 24/7
behavior modification
program. Until the late 1980s, aversion therapy was administered in the form of spanking with a spatula, pinching the feet, and forced inhaling of ammonia.
The Center administers 2-second electric skin shocks to residents using a Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED), which was invented to administer the skin-shocks by remote control through electrodes worn against the skin. Most often, the shocks are initiated manually by the staff. Automatic punishment is also used by forcing the patient to sit down on a cushion; if they stand up, they are automatically shocked. To address high-risk, low-frequency behaviors, a "Behavior Rehearsal Lesson" has been planned: The person is restrained and forcibly told to misbehave: if the student pulls away, he is shocked; if he follows the order to engage in the risky behavior, he is shocked even more. Reduction of food is also used as punishment: up to three-quarters of the daily required calories can be withheld from the patients if staff members judge that they are misbehaving.
The center stated on its website that electrical shock aversives are only employed after positive behavioral interventions have not been proven to help with violent, self-injurious behaviors and the GED is used with only 42% of residents of school age.
In December 2007, the Center was found by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care to have been abusive towards residents, failing to protect their health, after two residents were shocked using a GED on the behest of a former student, posing as a staff member via telephone. Video surveillance revealed that one resident was restrained on a 4-point board despite the fact the individual was not approved for this type of physical restraint. In response, the Center has claimed to have instituted several reforms, including re-training current staff, appointing new supervisors, regularly reviewing video recordings of staff and supposedly instituting random spot checks of staff behavior, new call screening procedures and the suspension or cancellation of certain punishments (including the GED for certain residential units). The Center also had its operations reviewed until December 2008, with specific attention being paid to the use of GED to ensure they were only used for extremely dangerous and self-destructive behavior, and also supposedly had to show the treatments reduce those behaviors. A video tape documenting a compilation of the footage related to abuse investigations was destroyed by the school after being reviewed by several investigators, despite being requested to keep the tape by an investigator with the Disabled Persons Protection Commission. In November 2011, the JREC was legally prohibited from using aversives under new regulations adopted by the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services.
Parents of difficult children have been both highly supportive and critical of the center's practices; the center has been both praised for allowing residents and parents to live together, while others have sued the school based on their use of aversives.
On April 29, 2010, the American human rights
organization Mental Disability Rights International
filed a request with the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture, stating they believed the residents were being subjected to human rights abuses due to their use of aversives.
In May 2011, Matthew Israel was charged with misleading a grand jury
over the school's destruction of the tapes, as well as being an accessory after the fact. Israel resigned his position at the JREC in a deferred prosecution plea deal with the Massachusetts State Attorney General's office. The JREC is currently administered by a court-appointed monitor.
Special needs
In the USA, special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to describe individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. For instance, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International...
students that operates in Canton, Massachusetts
Canton, Massachusetts
Canton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,561 at the 2010 census. Canton is part of Greater Boston, about 15 miles southwest of downtown Boston.- History :...
, providing applied behavior analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis
Applied behavior analysis is a science that involves using modern behavioral learning theory to modify behaviors. Behavior analysts reject the use of hypothetical constructs and focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment...
and educational services to children and adults with severe developmental disabilities and emotional or behavior disorders, as well as providing respite care
Respite care
Respite care is the provision of short-term, temporary relief to those who are caring for family members who might otherwise require permanent placement in a facility outside the home....
to their primary caregivers. The Center is one of very few that makes extensive use of aversives
Aversives
In psychology, aversives are unpleasant stimuli that induce changes in behavior through punishment; by applying an aversive immediately following a behavior, the likelihood of the behavior occurring in the future is reduced. Aversives can vary from being slightly unpleasant or irritating to...
, including electric shock
Electric shock
Electric Shock of a body with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles or hair. Typically, the expression is used to denote an unwanted exposure to electricity, hence the effects are considered undesirable....
and withholding of food, in its treatment and behavioral interventions.
History
The center was founded as the Behavior Research Institute in 1971 by Matthew L. Israel, a psychologistPsychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
who trained with B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, baseball enthusiast, social philosopher and poet...
. In 1994 the center changed its name to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center "to honor the memory of the judge [who] helped to preserve [the] program from extinction at the hands of state licensing officials in the 1980’s." It has 900 employees and annual revenues exceeding $56 million, charging $220,000 a year for each student.
The Judge Rotenberg Center treatment goals include a near-zero rejection/expulsion policy, active treatment with a behavioral
Behaviorism
Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...
approach directed exclusively towards normalization, frequent use of behavioral rewards
Reinforcement
Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the process of increasing the rate or probability of a behavior in the form of a "response" by the delivery or emergence of a stimulus Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the process of...
and punishment
Punishment (psychology)
In operant conditioning, punishment is any change in a human or animal's surroundings that occurs after a given behavior or response which reduces the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. As with reinforcement, it is the behavior, not the animal, that is punished...
, video monitoring of staff and the option to use aversives
Aversives
In psychology, aversives are unpleasant stimuli that induce changes in behavior through punishment; by applying an aversive immediately following a behavior, the likelihood of the behavior occurring in the future is reduced. Aversives can vary from being slightly unpleasant or irritating to...
, the most controversial of which is the use of electric shock
Electric shock
Electric Shock of a body with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles or hair. Typically, the expression is used to denote an unwanted exposure to electricity, hence the effects are considered undesirable....
s. The final item has provoked considerable controversy and has led to calls from several disability rights groups to call for human protection from behavior modification
Behavior modification
Behavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of...
, behavior therapy, and applied behavior analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis
Applied behavior analysis is a science that involves using modern behavioral learning theory to modify behaviors. Behavior analysts reject the use of hypothetical constructs and focus on the observable relationship of behavior to the environment...
approaches.
Use of Aversives
The Center makes use of aversivesAversives
In psychology, aversives are unpleasant stimuli that induce changes in behavior through punishment; by applying an aversive immediately following a behavior, the likelihood of the behavior occurring in the future is reduced. Aversives can vary from being slightly unpleasant or irritating to...
as part of their intensive, 24/7
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
behavior modification
Behavior modification
Behavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of...
program. Until the late 1980s, aversion therapy was administered in the form of spanking with a spatula, pinching the feet, and forced inhaling of ammonia.
The Center administers 2-second electric skin shocks to residents using a Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED), which was invented to administer the skin-shocks by remote control through electrodes worn against the skin. Most often, the shocks are initiated manually by the staff. Automatic punishment is also used by forcing the patient to sit down on a cushion; if they stand up, they are automatically shocked. To address high-risk, low-frequency behaviors, a "Behavior Rehearsal Lesson" has been planned: The person is restrained and forcibly told to misbehave: if the student pulls away, he is shocked; if he follows the order to engage in the risky behavior, he is shocked even more. Reduction of food is also used as punishment: up to three-quarters of the daily required calories can be withheld from the patients if staff members judge that they are misbehaving.
The center stated on its website that electrical shock aversives are only employed after positive behavioral interventions have not been proven to help with violent, self-injurious behaviors and the GED is used with only 42% of residents of school age.
Controversy
Concerns into the treatment regime prompted investigation by New York City Council and an independent report was commissioned which was highly critical of both processes and oversight at the facility. The report mentioned a dependence on punishment, almost to the total exclusion of positive reinforcement, medication or psychological therapy. This dependence is also evident in the lack of effort to switch gradually to other treatment as the condition of the patients improves. Social interaction, academic instruction and respect for the patients dignity were all found insufficient. The report also found substantial risks of malnourishment and side effects of the repeated punishments — both physical (burns) and psychological (fear, PTSD, aggression). The qualifications of the personnel were judged insufficient; indeed, most of the staff have only completed high school. Some of the electrical shocking devices used are not cleared by the FDA.In December 2007, the Center was found by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care to have been abusive towards residents, failing to protect their health, after two residents were shocked using a GED on the behest of a former student, posing as a staff member via telephone. Video surveillance revealed that one resident was restrained on a 4-point board despite the fact the individual was not approved for this type of physical restraint. In response, the Center has claimed to have instituted several reforms, including re-training current staff, appointing new supervisors, regularly reviewing video recordings of staff and supposedly instituting random spot checks of staff behavior, new call screening procedures and the suspension or cancellation of certain punishments (including the GED for certain residential units). The Center also had its operations reviewed until December 2008, with specific attention being paid to the use of GED to ensure they were only used for extremely dangerous and self-destructive behavior, and also supposedly had to show the treatments reduce those behaviors. A video tape documenting a compilation of the footage related to abuse investigations was destroyed by the school after being reviewed by several investigators, despite being requested to keep the tape by an investigator with the Disabled Persons Protection Commission. In November 2011, the JREC was legally prohibited from using aversives under new regulations adopted by the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services.
Parents of difficult children have been both highly supportive and critical of the center's practices; the center has been both praised for allowing residents and parents to live together, while others have sued the school based on their use of aversives.
On April 29, 2010, the American human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organization Mental Disability Rights International
Mental Disability Rights International
Disability Rights International , is a Washington, DC based human rights advocacy organization that documents conditions, publishes reports, and promotes international oversight of the rights of mentally disabled people...
filed a request with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Special Rapporteur on Torture, stating they believed the residents were being subjected to human rights abuses due to their use of aversives.
In May 2011, Matthew Israel was charged with misleading a grand jury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
over the school's destruction of the tapes, as well as being an accessory after the fact. Israel resigned his position at the JREC in a deferred prosecution plea deal with the Massachusetts State Attorney General's office. The JREC is currently administered by a court-appointed monitor.