Torture not Treatment - Disability Rights International

TORTURE NOT TREATMENT
if it takes place in a school or a medical establishment and is justified by authorities as a form of
treatment.
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 – Manfred Nowak, United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture
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.
The worst thing ever was the BRLs. They try and make you do a bad behavior and then
they punish you. 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. – MDRI interview with former JRC student
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.
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.
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… – April 2009 report Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation
(DMR)
Despite the overwhelming evidence of abuse at JRC, domestic remedies to end these abuses have
failed. 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.
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
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