Judge Rotenberg Center
#StopTheShock and Torture of People with Disabilities
The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is an institution in Massachusetts for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), mental health disabilities, and learning disabilities, who are disproportionately people of color. The Judge Rotenberg Center tortures some of the people living there using an electric shock device called a Gradual Electronic Decelerator (GED). Children and adults at the JRC are forced to wear the GED on their bodies. Using a remote control, someone else can use the GED to give an electric shock to the person wearing it. The JRC uses the GED as an “aversive" --they use the pain of the electric shock to punish people for doing certain things.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is coming up on 2 years of failing to release a rule that would end the use of the GED. The JRC is the only facility in the US that uses this device, which the United Nations has called a form of torture. An FDA panel admitted that the devices were not effective in stopping people from hurting themselves and they actively caused physical and emotional harm.
The FDA created a rule that would end the use of GED, but it has not been released. Every day they wait, people with disabilities at the JRC face torture for everything from stimming (self-stimulatory behavior, the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or repetitive movement of objects) to refusing to take off their coats. The time to hold the FDA accountable isn’t in 2 more years – it is right now!
Judge Rotenberg Center
#StopTheShock and Torture of People with Disabilities
The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is an institution in Massachusetts for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), mental health disabilities, and learning disabilities, who are disproportionately people of color. The Judge Rotenberg Center tortures some of the people living there using an electric shock device called a Gradual Electronic Decelerator (GED). Children and adults at the JRC are forced to wear the GED on their bodies. Using a remote control, someone else can use the GED to give an electric shock to the person wearing it. The JRC uses the GED as an “aversive" --they use the pain of the electric shock to punish people for doing certain things.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is coming up on 2 years of failing to release a rule that would end the use of the GED. The JRC is the only facility in the US that uses this device, which the United Nations has called a form of torture. An FDA panel admitted that the devices were not effective in stopping people from hurting themselves and they actively caused physical and emotional harm.
The FDA created a rule that would end the use of GED, but it has not been released. Every day they wait, people with disabilities at the JRC face torture for everything from stimming (self-stimulatory behavior, the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or repetitive movement of objects) to refusing to take off their coats. The time to hold the FDA accountable isn’t in 2 more years – it is right now!