Torture not Treatment - Disability Rights International

TORTURE NOT TREATMENT
disability classification ‗emotional disturbance‘ with IQ scores that fall in the low average to
average range of intelligence. 19 There are also a number of students with the classification of
autism with cognitive abilities falling in the range of mild to profound mental retardation. 20
Many of the students from New York have a diagnoses of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (ADD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and bipolar
disorder. 21 A number of students have a history of abuse and abandonment.‖ 22 More
recently, some adolescents have also been coming to JRC through the juvenile justice system and
transfers from Rikers Island prison in New York. 23
Early on, punishments – known as aversives – were used to control the behavior of people who
were called severely ―mentally retarded‖ and children with autism. Punishments included
pinching, spatula spankings, water sprays, muscle squeezes, forced inhalation of ammonia and
helmets which battered the brain with inescapable white noise. 24
In the late 1980s, JRC began using SIBIS (Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System) machines
on students, as an alternative to spanking, squeezing and pinching. The machine, developed in
1985, produced a 0.2 second shock of 2.02 milliamps on the arms or legs of the recipient, with
the intention of stopping self-injurious behaviors in children with autism and other
developmental disabilities. Controversial from the outset and shunned by advocates, the use of
SIBIS was largely abandoned in the 1990‘s in favor of ―positive-based‖ practices. 25
Over the years, JRC has found that an individual who responds to low levels of electricity may
become ―adapted‖ to pain and ―needs a stronger stimulation.‖ 26 The 12 year old nephew of
Massachusetts State Representative Jeffrey Sanchez was diagnosed with autism and was a
student at JRC in 1989 when JRC began using the SIBIS machine. As described in testimony
before the Massachusetts legislature, 27 one day he received more than 5,000 shocks to stop his
behaviors – to no avail. When the manufacturer of SIBIS refused JRC‘s request to provide them
with a stronger and more painful shock machine, JRC developed its own mechanism for
administering shock, the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED). The GED is a remotely
controlled device that can be strapped to an individual‘s back or another part of the body with
electrodes attached to the torso, arms, legs, hands and feet. The GED administers 15.5 milliamps
of electricity. A stronger version, the GED-4, subjects an individual to a shock of 45.5 milliamps.
Both may be used up to 2.0 seconds. The director of JRC, Matthew Israel, describes the shock as
―very painful.‖ 28 Sanchez‘s nephew is now 31 years old and remains at JRC. According to
testimony before the Massachusetts Legislature in November 2009, he is still tethered to the
GED shock machine. 29
JRC also uses physical restraints as a form of aversive treatment, sometimes simultaneously with
electric shock. 30 The GED and restraints are sometimes combined because it is necessary to stop
a person from ripping the GED pack off his or her body. Other times, physical restraints may be
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