Torture not Treatment - Disability Rights International

TORTURE NOT TREATMENT
added to the use of the GED when the aversive power of electricity alone is not sufficient. As
described on the JRC website, ―[T]he safest way to do this is to use mechanical restraint to
contain the student, in a prone position, on a flexible plastic restraint platform that has been
specially designed for the purpose.‖ 31 It is worth noting that, outside JRC, the use of any
―prone‖ (face down) restraints are widely considered to be inherently dangerous, and many states
have banned any form of prone restraints in the mental health context. 32
JRC‘s rationale for the use of powerful shocks and other aversives – both in the past and
currently – is that his facility serves some children or adults with the most severe cases of selfinjurious
behaviors, not controlled with any other treatment. 33 According to JRC, parents come
to JRC after all other services have failed.
JRC is technically a school, licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary &
Secondary Education, and children are theoretically placed there voluntarily. It additionally
receives its Level III aversive certification by the Massachusetts Department of Developmental
Services (formerly Department of Mental Retardation) as well as licensing for its over residential
program for adults over 22 years old. Children and adolescences‘ residences at JRC are licensed
by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care.
The voluntary consent to treatment, however, is a legal fiction for children and adults with
disabilities who have been declared mentally incompetent. In practice, parents or guardians
consent to placement at JRC. 34 Once there, JRC must seek a court hearing to request permission
to use electric shock or other Level III aversives on residents. Referred to as a ―substituted
judgment‖ hearing, the court determines whether the child or adult would have chosen to receive
such treatment if he or she were competent to do so. 35 Parents or other legal guardians must also
approve the use of the GED. The court rarely denies approval.
JRC is not an open facility but a closed institution where children are transported from their JRC
owned and operated residences to the JRC school in shackles. As the NYSED report stated in
2006:
Students were observed as they arrived and departed from school. Almost all were
restrained in some manner, with metal „police‟ handcuffs and leg restraints, as they
boarded and exited vehicles. Several students are transported in wheeled chairs that
keep them in four-point restraint.
In practice, for many residents, JRC is a closed institution where children and adults with
disabilities are segregated from the non-disabled world.
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