stop the use of aversives in the Judge Rottenburg Center

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The Issue

The Judge Rottenburg Center(JRC) is a mental hospital in Massachusetts. It uses aversives, a euphemism for torture, to try to get kids with mental disabilities to change their behavior. 5 kids have died at the JRC. The aversives used are electrical shocks, pinching, force feeding of hot peppers, force smelling of ammonia, seclusion, restraint, and sensory deprivation. There are cameras in the bathrooms and toilets which can be monitored by the opposite sex. Many of the children are stripped down before they are restrained. The staff aren't watched while doing these things however. Electric shock devices are attached to the kids and they are on even while the children are asleep and bathing. Several kids have been burned by shocks received in the shower. Starvation is also used. Many of these were techniques used to interrogate terrorists at Guantanamo. They banned them for the worlds most deadly criminals but they are still legal against our own children.

The Decision Makers

massachusetts department of mental retardation
massachusetts department of mental retardation

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Petition created on February 20, 2012