Founder Of Electro-Shock Autism School Forced To Quit

[axe murderer]

The founder of a controversial school that treats severely autistic and emotionally disturbed children by shocking them into submission with the use of electrodes has been forced to quit the institution and serve five years' probation.

Matthew Israel, a Harvard-trained psychologist, has created a treatment that is unique to the US and possibly the world. The Judge Rotenberg Center, just outside Boston, disciplines its students using a punishment machine that Israel invented called the GED, which gives a two-second electric shock to the skin of up to 90 milliamps.

At the centre, which was profiled by the Guardian earlier this year, students wear backpacks around the clock with the GED electric generators inside them, and are zapped using remote control devices controlled by their carers. In some cases, they are shocked as often as 30 times a day as a means of dissuading them from behaviour deemed dangerous to themselves or others.

The criminal charges brought against Israel relate to an incident in August 2007 at one of the school's residential homes where students sleep at night. A call came in from someone posing as an authorised supervisor, who informed the carers on duty that two teenagers had misbehaved and should be given shock treatment.

At 2am, the boys were strapped on boards and given multiple shocks. One of the boys, aged 18, was shocked 77 times over a three-hour period and the other boy, aged 16, was shocked 29 times. It was later discovered that the initial call had been a hoax.

The Massachusetts attorney general, Martha Coakley, indicted Israel over allegations that he ordered his staff to destroy video evidence that revealed exactly what happened that night. Prosecutors had previously ordered that the video recordings from the home were preserved.

"Dr Israel then attempted to destroy evidence of the events and mislead investigators, and that conduct led to his indictments today. Today's action removes Dr Israel from the school and should ensure better protection for students in the future," Coakley said.

The conviction is a substantial blow to Israel, who has weathered a storm of protest about his controversial methods for 40 years. He announced his retirement from the school on 2 May, without referring to the pending criminal case. He said he was moving to California, where his wife Judy lives.

"I am now almost 78 years old, and it is time for me to move over and let others take the reins," he said in a resignation letter.

But his departure will not materially change the way the school operates, crucially its technique of disciplining children by meting out electric shocks as a form of supposedly therapeutic punishment. Of the school's 225 students, 97 are currently on the electric shock regime.

The terms of the plea deal struck between Israel and the prosecutors require the school to introduce additional monitoring to prevent a similar lapse of security happening again. But the shocks themselves can continue.

"The case was only about Israel's conduct, it did not address the way the school is run," a spokesman for the attorney general's office said.

Laurie Ahern of Disability Rights International, which has been a persistent critic of the school, said that without an end to the shocks, Israel's departure would be irrelevant. "I don't see any radical change at the moment."

Hillary Cook, who spent three years at the school until 2009, and who was regularly shocked, said that whatever happened to Israel, she wanted to see the regime of shocks abolished. "I'm just worried about the kids who live there, because I know what it's like. They say the shocks are like a bee sting, and believe me they are not. It should be illegal to physically harm children and disabled people in this country."

The school has been a subject of huge controversy over past decades, with regular attempts to shut it down. Last year its use of electric shocks was attacked as a form of torture by the UN rapporteur on torture.

In February, the justice department opened an investigation into the school after it received a complaint alleging the centre had violated disability laws.

Despite the negative publicity directed at him, Israel managed to keep operating for so long partly because he had the vociferous support of parents of severely autistic children at the school.

The centre rarely uses drugs on its students, in contrast to many other homes for autistic people where heavy doses of psychotropic drugs are prescribed. At the time of Israel's resignation, Louisa Goldberg, whose son has been on the shock regime for the past 11 years, said that "Dr Israel's pioneering efforts have given our child back his life and we are extremely grateful for all that he has done for our family."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... ent-school

[Dethgurl]

School founder denies he obstructed justice
http://http://www.boston.com/community/moms/articles/2011/05/26/rotenberg_center_founder_denies_obstruction_charges_agrees_to_leave/

DEDHAM — The head of a controversial special needs school denied in court yesterday that he obstructed justice four years ago, yet he agreed to leave his post as part of a deal with prosecutors that will probably lead to the case being dropped in five years.

“Not guilty,’’ declared Matthew Israel during his arraignment in Norfolk Superior Court, where nearly three dozen parents who supported him sat in the courtroom, along with his team of lawyers and public relations specialists.

Israel, 77, founder of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center in Canton, stood stoically as Assistant Attorney General Glenn Cunha recounted how Israel ordered the destruction of some digital video recordings in 2007, which were a key part of an investigation.

Cunha, who was joined in court by state Attorney General Martha Coakley, said Israel had been told by state authorities to preserve the tapes because they showed what happened during a horrifying night at a Rotenberg group home in which two teenagers were given dozens of inappropriate skin-shock treatments based on a prank phone call.

Israel’s center endorses an unorthodox behavioral-control method, in which more than half of the center’s 200 students wear electrodes attached to their skin, and staff members, armed with remote devices, can punish them with shocks for deviant behavior. Students generally have severe behavioral problems, including some with autism and intellectual disabilities.

Even though prosecutors were ultimately able to find a back-up copy of the destroyed tapes, Cunha said, there was enough evidence that the grand jury indicted Israel Friday on two counts related to misleading a witness and destroying evidence. Cunha said his office ultimately decided to offer Israel a pretrial probation agreement, in which Israel had to permanently end his tenure at the center, which he founded 40 years ago, and serve a five-year probationary term. If he complied, prosecutors would drop the case in five years.

In a separate but related matter, the center has also agreed to hire Isaac Borenstein, a former judge who is now in a private legal practice, to conduct a four-month investigation into the practices at the center.

In accepting the deal, Max Stern, Israel’s defense lawyer, emphasized that his client was not admitting any wrongdoing. He went on to say that Israel had initially cooperated with state authorities, even showing them the original recordings, but ordered the destruction only when he thought the investigation was over and the recordings were no longer needed.

“There was never any attempt or desire by Dr. Israel to cover up anything,’’ Stern said before Judge Kenneth Fishman.

It is an ironic twist that the career of Israel would end over a criminal indictment involving digital surveillance recordings. Israel, no stranger to controversy, had taken pride in the 24-hour surveillance cameras as part of his methodology to help control student and staff behavior.

At the school’s central headquarters, there is a small room with banks of televisions with images from scores of digital video cameras installed at classrooms and at group homes. Staff members monitor those cameras day and night, recording colleagues’ compliance with rules and whether students’ misdeeds were missed by nearby staff and worthy of punishment. If so, the employees watching the screens can call a staff member and order two-second electrical shocks.

Yet these surveillance recordings, so critical to Israel’s operation, may have ultimately controlled him. On a night in August 2007, video cameras captured what happened when a prank caller, pretending to work in the central television screening room, said he noticed two teenagers in a Stoughton group home misbehave and ordered electrical shocks to them.

Staff members who received the call woke up the two students. One was given 77 skin-shock treatments over three hours while protesting and being restrained; another was given two dozen shocks. Recordings from that night are at issue in the indictment against Israel.

Outside court after Israel’s arraignment, Stern referred to another reason Israel was not eager to have recordings circulate beyond the Rotenberg center.

“They did not want something like this to get out on the Internet,’’ he said.

Parents who came out in support of Israel confronted Coakley after the arraignment, saying she was depriving the school of a leader who was willing to accept their children, when many rejected them as unmanageable. Critics of the school, however, said they still want to see Massachusetts end a practice they view as barbaric.

State Senator Brian Joyce, a Democrat from Milton who has pushed bills to end what is often called aversive therapy, said, “I’m very upset that the deliberate and painful infliction of electric skin shocks on our most vulnerable children continues in Massachusetts.’’

Patricia Wen can be reached at [email protected].
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Ursus]

Mmm... that's quite a photo of Matthew Israel, Dethgurl...



Btw, some pertinent data left out of the article in the OP:

Founder of electric shock autism treatment school forced to quit
Institute uses punishment machine to discipline severely autistic and emotionally disturbed children by giving them electric shocks
 
Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 May 2011 23.49 BST

< snip snip >


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011[/list]

[axe murderer]

Reader Comments to the Boston Globe article:

http://www.boston.com/community/moms/ar ... ll#addComm

JustWords wrote:
Anyone who chimes in to slam this guy: you ARE willing to open your home to these students, many of whom can and would smash your heads through a wall, or bash their own against the bricks until they knock themselves out cold, right? You DO have an effective alternative for these cases, no?

The option for these kids is to be heavily sedated and locked in an isolated, padded room. These kids aren't shocked because they spill milk, and the shocking isn't to 'punish' in the way you lay people think of the term. It's a last resort for the hardest of the hard behaviors to manage, and it DOES work. This is the last bulwark against resorting to a chemical lobotomy, or serious physical harm - if not both.

Think before you judge what you have never seen in person, or had the misfortune of experiencing as the destructive force of nature that it can be, visited upon the life of desperate parents. It’s like a Joplin storm in every home, every day.

The prank revealed an ugly side of human nature, but one that is hardly unique to the Rotenberg Center or its methods. Consider the Milgram experiment, or the case of the prank caller who convinced that McDonalds manager to have his female employee strip down naked for him in his office.

Take note of the amount of abuse that already occurs against kids with severe special needs in more mainstream institutions - especially against students who present the severe challenges posed by these hardest of the hard cases, to say nothing of the all too common sexual assaults against in the more defenseless.

The Rotenberg Center offers hope of progress. The obstructionists offer only the cynical alternative of doom. Elevate your concerns above your own sensibilities, or your preconceived notions of 'humane' - accept the reality of the situation, and understand that this is no more cruel than the infliction of harm that is radiation therapy for a cancer patient. Nothing in waters this deep is without risk or suffering.

It is nature itself who forces our hands. If they must suffer - and they do one way or the other - at least don't take away this last measure of hope that is the only one available to these families stuck in a living hell you are happy not to fully understand.

Please. Just stay out of the way.


Or consider the


5/26/2011 8:26 AM EDT Recommend (  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  brainbark wrote:
Imagine each day, every day, having electrodes attached to your skin, and having to wear a backpack containing a battery and wires attached to those electrodes. Anytime a staff person observes you "misbehaving", the staff person can press a remote control which delivers painful electric shocks to your skin. This is life at the Rotenberg Center. Even though this story was fairly thorough, there was one glaring omission – it should have included quotes from people with disabilities who have had a firsthand experience of receiving these painful electric shocks, day in and day out.
5/26/2011 9:45 AM EDT Recommend (6)  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  wimsy wrote:
Sick, sick, sick. One group of perverts watches on TV monitors while another gang of degenerates inflicts shock treatments on mentally-ill children. And it's all on tape, so they can go back and relive the fun anytime -- unless it's evidence, in which case, they erase it.

Does "adverse" treatment work? Sure, but it's just torture by a clinical name.
5/26/2011 9:57 AM EDT Recommend (6)  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  148634 wrote:
shock therapy vs a bunch or thorizine shufflers. but i would bet it is much easier to deal with people if you just dope them up each day. shock has instant results, or just keep someone good and drugged and it does what? patient a i take all these drugs and i don't act violent at all. what do you do i drool thats about it. how is th4e shock therapy well when i start getting violent towards others i get shocked, do you continue to act violent, no i don't, i don't like shocks. I will say it is much cheaper and safer to just keep them drugged up to prevent inuries to themselves and others. As long as any person giving the shocks is required to also see hwat it feels like. Maybe if some of these drug happy medicate people were required to take the same drugs they wouldn't be so quick to drug up everyone they treat.
5/26/2011 11:51 AM EDT Recommend  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  ssmith31415 wrote:
According to the article, there were 30+ parents there in the courtroom to support Matthew Israel -- surely some of them are willing to talk about why. Perhaps the Globe should do its job and write a story about the parents and their difficult choices.
5/26/2011 1:44 PM EDT Recommend (2)  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  trills wrote:
Not only was Harvard's Dr. Matthew Israel spying on the children, he was also spying on the staff members to insure not a single infraction of his rules went unpunished.

Obviously, it is not unusual at Rotenberg to wake children in the night, restrain them with belts and straps, and spend three and more hours electrocuting them.

One boy was given 77 (admitted to) electro shocks on the same spots on his skin over and over again for three hours
as the result of a prank phone call from someone familar with Israel's mandates.

The boy's skin, nerves, and blood vessels must have been badly burned. His body must have been horribly disfigured. He must have cried out for mercy and for compassion.

Harvard's Dr. Matthew Israel ignored him.

While being filmed, other children died as a result of the electrocutions at Rotenberg. (Those are called "snuff" films in the porno market.)

Harvard's Matthew Israel is a psychosexual sadist who keeps multiple videos of his torture of special needs children.

Israel's Judge was Kenneth Fishmen who appointed Issac Borenstein to conduct an investigation into the practices at the center.

That's problematic. Isn't Isaac Borenstein handling the umpteenth appeal of Ben LaGuer. And isn't the basis of the retired Judge's appeal that the 59 yr. old white woman (who unwittingly opened the door to her attacker), was too mentally ill to identify the black male who bound, raped and tortured her for 8 hours and left her for dead in her own home.

And still, Israel, the sadist doctor, has access to the special needs child torture and videos. Shut that operation down.


5/26/2011 5:19 PM EDT Recommend (2)  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  Lambs33 wrote:
To "Just Words"
I can understand the frustration you feel when you write:

"Anyone who chimes in to slam this guy: you ARE willing to open your home to these students, many of whom can and would smash your heads through a wall, or bash their own against the bricks until they knock themselves out cold, right? You DO have an effective alternative for these cases, no?"
--------
And, of course, the JRC, has had its successes (not to be discounted!) in such cases where a student is trying to gouge out his/her eyes, etc.-- those DIRE EMERGENCIES that a student can cause for himself/herself and for staff members. And we give you a lot of credit for dealing with this most difficult group and for all the successes.

I understand the use of "skin shock" better, but only in such cases as this, as I find the very idea of shock treatment totally inhumane and always will.

What disturbs and depresses so many of us greatly is the ABUSE of such a treatment where it is really not called for at all and also the DEGREE of pain inflicted on those afflicted by conditions they never bargained on in the first place, such as autism, developmental delays ...

YES, we have compassion for the families of these students and their suffering, and for the very real fear that staff members must feel about those students who have already displayed their violent tendencies, HOWEVER, to routinely zap a good portion of the student population for minor things IS ABUSE. No other word for it.

The 2 second sting (likened to a bee sting, which is painful enough) is far worse than expressed by the director and his staff members, so this is not so much about our own sensibilities, but about protecting those entrusted to your care in the best way possible, so that your school becomes more of a haven for the afflicted as well as a respite for their exhausted families. Is this possible? I hope so, as we all do.

If it becomes possible under a new director's leadership, the school will do well even with this recent bad publicity and will indeed earn the 6 digit figure per student who comes to your school.


Lastly, instead of the attitude, Please. Just stay out of the way," can that attitude be adjusted to incorporate both the good and the bad feedback, carefully consider it, and make the adjustments so that no child need feel needlessly terrorized. We all have a stake in this rightfully, as our tax dollars are paying your salaries, so PLEASE TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM. We won't ever mind our own business as far as human rights abuses and tax dollars ill spent.

"Thank you for listening"
5/26/2011 5:24 PM EDT Recommend (1)  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  GEORGEREM wrote:
IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE SCHOOL OR PROGRAM I DO NOT THINK YOU SHOULD COMMENT ON IT. IF YOU HAVE AND DO NOT AGREE THAT IS FINE. BUT TO ONLY GO BY WHAT YOU READ OF HOW OTHER PEOPLE FEEL IS WRONG.MANY KIDS AT THIS SCHOOL HAVE BEEN HELPED AND THERE LIVES SAVED.
THIS IS NOT THE BAD PLACE IT IS MADE UP TO BE, MANY GOOD THINGS HAPPEN HERE.
JUST THANK GOD YOU DO NOT HAVE AN OUT OF CONTROLL CHILD AND HAVE TO MAKE THE DIFFICULT CHOICE.
5/26/2011 5:47 PM EDT Recommend  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  ParentsRights wrote:
I'm still trying to figure out why it took Attorney General Martha Coakley 4 years to get a "not guilty" plea? If Dr. Israel is such a risk to the safety of the students, why is he being allowed to stay until the end of the year? Obviously this was not a criminal case but a political one. For those who have followed the history of the Judge Rotenberg Center vs. some in the legislature (who are also supporters of the Attorney General), then that becomes clear.

I agree, it was too bad the newspapers and TV news did not show all the support from the parents and a former student of JRC. They made it clear that they feel less safe, NOT more, with Dr. Israel leaving.

As for State Senator Joyce, perhaps he will do more than ride by the school on his way to work and actually go inside before pushing unneeded legislation!
5/26/2011 8:05 PM EDT Recommend  Report abuse  Permalink  
 
  flana wrote:
Matthew Israel should be praised, not villified. These children are not welcome anywhere else in the country and their parents are at witts end. The parents are praising Mr. Israel, because their lives have been a living hell. I wish Senator Brian Joyce and Attorney General Martha Caokley would volunteer for a day at the Rottenberg center. They wouldn't last 10 minutes . These kids bang their heads against walls, most wear helmets, they chew their own skin and rip at their genitals, and throw feces. They eat the cork off of bulletin boards and have incredible physical strentgh and unlike the biased reporting in the Boston Globe today, they are not "punished" by electrical shock, they are "corrected" and jolted into reality, in an attempt to calm them down. It revolts the do-gooders, but it works!

Do these same do-gooders consider it "punishment", when their treasured family pets have an invisable fence placed around their yard? How come they consider it training and "behavioral" in that instance and "punishment" in the Rottenberg instance. This man, Matthew Israel, is a blessing, and all of the parents that have sent their kids from across the country, because their own states couldn't handle them, will vouch for him, as did the many he had in court yesterday to support him.

I say to the politician's, quit trying to make political hay over a very difficult situation. The people that work at Judge Rotteberg are heroe's. I live in Canton and I know people that give their heart and soul dealing with those kids every day. Again I say to the Senator and Attorney General, go volunteer and do good deeds for a day at the Rottenberg Center!

[Dethgurl]

From Disibility Rights International:

Dear Supporters,


Today, we can celebrate a small victory. The director of the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) of Massachusetts, which uses electric shocks to punish children and young adults with disabilities, has resigned in the face of criminal charges. Disability Rights International documented the use of electric shock and long-term restraints at this facility in our report Torture not Treatment http://http://www.disabilityrightsintl.org/media-gallery/our-reports-publications/ published last year.

Matthew Israel, founder and director of JRC, was charged with misleading a grand jury and destroying evidence in relation to an incident in 2007 in which a prank phone call to the center from a person posing as an employee led to two children with disabilities being given dozens of electrical shocks for absolutely no reason. One of these children was restrained and given 77 shocks over three hours.

Yesterday, Israel accepted a court settlement which requires him

to resign as director, and sentences him to five years of probation.
"We believe that Dr. Israel created a system and environment at

the JRC that failed to prevent a lapse of this magnitude," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, "Dr. Israel
then attempted to destroy evidence of the events and mislead investigators, and that conduct led to his indictments."  

See full coverage of his indictment on ABC Nightline. http://http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/shocking-school-founder-court-13690384
The Nightline story highlights the sad but inspiring story of a former resident who managed to escape from the center after years of shock and restraint.

Last year, Disability Rights International filed an urgent appeal http://http://www.disabilityrightsintl.org/work/country-projects/united-states/ with the United Nations insisting that the practices at JRC are torture. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture agreed. The US Justice Department is also now investigating the center. Regardless, Israel has continued to shock children for behaviors as mild as speaking without permission.

We see Israel's departure as an opportunity to end the abusive practice of using electric shock as treatment for people with disabilities at JRC once and for all. Israel was the creator and staunchest defender of this theory of behavior control. We
cannot allow another person like Israel to be behind the switch
at JRC and continue to subject children to torture. It is time for
this sick practice to end.

We encourage you to write your concerns to the Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. http://http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us
JRC accepts children from around the country, and the torture of children with disabilities is an international concern. Please let your voice be heard. Disability Rights International will continue to work with disability

activists, legislators and the media, to keep the pressure on JRC.

You can support our work by making a tax-deductible

donation at http://http://www.disabilityrightsintl.org.

We are one step closer.

Thank you for your support,
Laurie Ahern,
President

Eric Rosenthal,
Executive Director

[Ursus]

@Dethgurl: Is there a link for the above letter / press release from Disability Rights International?

At any rate... from the above DRI letter:

"Matthew Israel, founder and director of JRC, was charged with misleading a grand jury and destroying evidence in relation to an incident in 2007 in which a prank phone call to the center from a person posing as an employee led to two children with disabilities being given dozens of electrical shocks for absolutely no reason. One of these children was restrained and given 77 shocks over three hours."[/list]

More on that incident, or mention thereof, in a number of threads, especially this one:

• Showdown over shock therapy
  viewtopic.php?f=9&t=24791

[Dethgurl]

@Dethgurl: Is there a link for the above letter / press release from Disability Rights International?

It came in my e-mail.

[Xelebes]

Thanks.  this is good to hear.