When I first heard about the Judge Rotenberg torture center it took a week of intensive reading to educate myself about the issue. That’s a lot of time and effort, and I’m motivated. So I guess it’s understandable when the general public remains ignorant of the horrifying little psychiatric secrets going on in the times in which they live; too much work!
It’s not that the Rotenberg Center doesn’t get a lot of press, it does, it’s been featured on Dateline and other mainstream investigative programs, and was even depicted in an episode of Law and Order, still, most people are not aware of its existence.
Thankfully, this month’s Mother Jones has done a compelling and readable expose in School of Shock:
Food deprivation. Isolation. Electric shocks. Inside the taxpayer-funded program that treats American kids like enemy combatants.
* Nagging? Zap. Swearing? Zap: New York’s Investigations of the Rotenberg Center
* Why Can’t Massachusetts Shut Matthew Israel Down?
* The Cult That Spawned the Tough-Love Teen Industry
* Sons of Synanon: A Genealogy of Boot Camps and Behaviorists
* Experts on Self-Injurious Kids Challenge Dr. Israel’s Methods
* What Works for Troubled Teens?
Those sidebars are links that lead to a single page on each topic and a 500 word essay, with embedded links, rebuttals, legislative battles and a photo essay for anyone who wants to delve deeper. The public comments are also illuminating but not required to get a general overview.
Please read it.
Met a guy who tried to close that place down, he was sued personally for doing it plus the bastards tracked him down for every job thereafter badmouthing him. And he was state commissioner of mental retardation in Mass. at the time. Those folks have money and connections.
Psychologists and psychiatrists need to have a moratorium on any member working for or consulting for the place, here in the U.S., not just Guantanamo.
If you are going to beat your kid, I think you have to do with your own hand at least. Using painful electricity with no jury to decide what warrants punishment is sadistic. What if the person with the button was having a bad day?
I personally knew a worker who used electric shock cattle prods on mentally retarded children. It was justified as a lesser harm, as the children would bang their heads on the wall bad enough to break the skin etc, so they viewed the painful shocks as beneficial because it stopped them from serious self injury. It must be a spin off from that “science”.
Mark, I think you should know that no spanking whatsoever under any circumstances is the official policy of this blog. If you want to talk about that, okay, but it might be just as easy to read the posts.
I’ll read it all Robin, including the sidebars. I just started it, I feel like puking.
Ms. Gonnerman’s article “School of Shock,” which appears in the September/October issue of the Mother Jones magazine, is an entirely one-sided and biased account of the court- and parent-approved behavior modification therapy used at the Judge Rotenberg Center to successfully treat, without drugs, severe (sometimes life-threatening) behavior problems of children and young adults with special needs that have not responded to any other form of treatment. For readers who would like to hear the other side of this story, please see http://www.judgerc.org/ResponsetoGonnermanArticle.pdf
Matthew L. Israel
Executive Director
Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
http://www.judgerc.org
Right, doc, assume your critics haven’t read your rebuttal, there’s no other explanation as to why they ignore it. Also, selling points?
Not so much, but thanks for playing!
Flawedplan, did you know that the editors at Mother Jones printed his letter and then responded to it…
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/rotenberg-center-director-matthew-israel-responds-4.html#editors_respond
Judging by the number of times I’ve seen that letter he went on a spamming spree immediately after the series came out, thanks for the update.