Treatment or Torture @ Judge Rotenberg Center - ABC & CNN news

[Beauty4Aspies]

I do not think he would listen.

[ArizonaSean]

I worked at a state school with very self abusive clients. If you have a good psychologist and behavior plan you can heal these people. I have seen miraculous recoveries. There is absolutely no reason to torture these kids.

[HylianSpirit]

Negative reinforcement is bad enough, but painful reinforcement is an entirely different thing.

This is borderline Clockwork Orange type shit.

[headstock48]

That piece of shit Israel finally got fucking fired. About time.

[Recordscience]

It's important to realise that the procedure exists because it helps people, and not for any other reason. In fact, it does help people, and this story clearly spins the idea negatively. For many of these children, the alternatives to this sort of treatment is the only hope for any psychological improvement. I will draw an analogy here to chemotherapy, which is terrible for the patient, but which may help them nonetheless and is therefore acceptable.

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience Why don't YOU go for a few months of this treatment and then tell me it's not inhumane.

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir Because I don't need to? If I had cancer, and the condition of the patients subjected to GED at JRC is equivalent to that, I would certainly choose chemotherapy, but other no other condition. It's clear that it's used as a last resort, and even then it is used after much consideration/legal procedures/etc.

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience But this isn't a matter of life or death, nor do they make you go through chemotherapy against your will. And you can choose to stop chemo when YOU want to. This place is little more that a jail/torture chamber/brainwashing facility for children. And I'm starting to think that you may have some sort of vested interest in seeing the center continue to operate.

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir I would like to see the center continue to operate, because I am a Neuroscience and Psychology student who understands behavioral principles that go behind making something like this work. You are simply taking the facility out of context, which won't lead to a good moral evaluation of its function. Most cases subjected to GED are severe and have severely impaired volition (indeed YOU wouldn't trust to have them around you in public).

[Recordscience]

@Recordscience If they are given a chance at living a life in a more normal fashion, even if it comes at this grave price, I see it as a price worth paying, regardless of how uncomfortable it may make you (or anyone else) feel.

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience That dosen't mean that it's right to torture and abuse them! And I don't trust a place that has to bribe a judge to keep operating!

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir I'm not asking you to trust the place, and its not really important as long as it helps people.

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience I think the world needs less of your definition of "help" Mr. O'Brien.

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir I think people could use some education before deeming themselves qualified critics.

[davelovelady]

@Recordscience Are you one of the torturers?

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience Already resorting to finding elaborate ways of calling your opponents stupid, huh?

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir I'm sorry, you'e done all but impress me with your arguments (which just seem emotionally based)

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience And your continued defence of this prison tells me that you're the "ends always justify the means" type.

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir A Utilitarian, you mean? I am not strictly a utilitarian, it depends on the situation. Here, there is no other solution (unless you can come up with one).

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience Perscriptions, therapy sessions, and positive reinforcement. You get into unethical territory with starvation, verbal, emotional and physical abuse, electroshock, 2+2=5 treatments, and isolation from all positive human contact. Let's not forget sessions where paitents are commanded to break a rule, and get electrocuted whether they obey the command or not. How the hell is THAT supposed to help a person's mental health?! You tell me.

[Beauty4Aspies]

@Thoralmir It does not help at all! What the autistic need of all functioning level, is a lot of support (but not too much) and lots of love.

[Thoralmir]

@Beauty4Aspies Tell that to that (expletive deleted) Recordscience! He thinks torturing children is all fine and dandy if it makes them controllable!

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience Also, let's not forget the poor saps that get misdiagnosed and sent here. This is the sort of place where if you're sane going in, you be crazy and traumatized going out.

[Recordscience]

@Thoralmir Lets shut down all hospitals because they bring into existence the risk of mal-practice

[Thoralmir]

@Recordscience Where the hell did THAT statement come from?

[jewelmarkess]

I don't understand how people could work there. I couldn't. This is just outrageous. Just looking at this girl makes me want to rip all of these devices off of her and to take her out of there. How can this be allowed?

[Retro80Lady30]

I'm sorry I just couldn't work in a place like that I would grab the workers, and strap the device on them. They won't think it is therapy once they are shocked thirty times every hour.

[Retro80Lady30]

This guy reaps what he sows it will be stopped, and he will feel their pain. If only I had more people behind me I would get those kids out of there, and burn that place down. Obama is a hypocrit a tyrant, and to me a coward not a president. No country should allow this on any child. These people are sick, and this place needs to be shut down. I pray that one day it is God forgive my anger we just can't let this happen.

[Thoralmir]

I heard from my cousin up in Massachusetts that a few of her friends got sent here for protesting against Obama in school back in 2009, on the pretext of being "problem children"... :(

[headstock48]

@Thoralmir I think you have to be pretty hard core to be sent here.

[Thoralmir]

@headstock48 Not really, you just have to have really gullible parents.

[pammyshawammy]

This is absolutely intolerable to treat human beings like this. I thought abusive treatment of children could be prosecuted! If I saw a parent in a store shock her kid with a stun gun or catapult she would be arrested immediately. This guy needs to go to Jail with everyone involved, including the Teachers and Therapists! The are not innocent. The Commonwealth needs to do something about this right away, or they are as guilty as everyone involved!

[MotherVoltaire]

There is a place for skin shocking with extreme cases of self abuse -- done in a hospital, for a short time, and *before* an act of self-abuse. What JRC is just plain torture. Also their vegan diet and manipulation of children with food.

[MotherVoltaire]

Israel should be in prison for child abuse.

[headstock48]

@MotherVoltaire The guy is a piece of shit. 

[headstock48]

@MotherVoltaire They finally fired his sorry ass. Burn in hell, Israel.

[sinepeguh]

i personally think, the current abusive mental health system should be abolished and replace with scientology in my personal opinion

[Thoralmir]

@sinepeguh Not all places are like this, despite what Scientology would have you believe. Don't sue me!

[MariaTheGreat]

This is disturbing and disgusting. This is no way to treat a child -- or an adult, for that matter. The anxiety it causes in the girl shows it's effective??? What kind of head-shrinking trash is that?  All states should abolish it.

[gqstocker]

Where are we in our society were this is okay !!

[headbangerman11]

I would not allow this on my dog much less one of my kids.

[Zwolfi2]

Some one please explain why there was a mentally challenged person at the end of this clip, and why would she be subject to this "treatment" that is supposedly for "bad" or "troubled" youth....

[thedudeman69]

@Zwolfi2 Because back then doctors though shock therapy would cure mild to full mental retardation.

[Zwolfi2]

@thedudeman69 I know that but this video isn't that old and I believe they stopped using electroshock therapy for the mental ill a long time ago...

[headstock48]

@Zwolfi2 Because they use aversion therapy at this house of horrors, not just for BD kids, but for kids with autism, schizophrenia, etc. They think they can cure disabilities and mental illiness by torturing people. Fucking garbage.

[barbaracarmichaelnyc]

What insanity to even think of this! What are these people thinking to allow it!

Barbara

[CH1P52]

this cant be right.

anyone capable of love and thinking should see that. All I know is that if I had a job and I had to do somthing I was unsure about, I would study it and draw up a intelligent conclusion on whether or not I would do it or not. These teachers though, they havnt the time to find out whether or not the treatment is good/bad coz they got too much work to do and not enough pay - do what the "experts" say. dont have time to see if what they expertise in is good/bad either!

[Fritz1935]

@CH1P52 - Dear CHIP52 - You can apply the principle that if you wouldn't want this done to you, then it cannot be OK. No need to draw up a complicated "they don't have time", etc.

Thanks for your comments.

[fuschia5000]

How disgusting. 

[radfxstudios]

What the hell are these people thinking?! This is OUTrageous! Can you imagine being shocked every time you did something deemed "unacceptable"? This should not be tolerated one second longer and needs to shut down now, and this Israel guy should be put back in the asylum where he came from!

[Syldriana]

Electric shock of any kind is nothing less than barbaric.

[rhatteberg]

Nazi psychiatry at its finest. Dr. Israel belongs in a prison for the criminally insane.

[BillymanWag]

Unbelievable. What the hell? Total insanity. This is torture. What an insane man this guy is. Mathew Israel needs to be subjected to these shocks when he does something wrong--- like every moment of every day of his sordid life.

[Discovamp]

Electro shock devices should be banned from our society. This is human cruelty and torture! Why is this barbaric psycho-control tool still being used? Now we have a portable torture machine? What are our kids doing that is so bad that they need to be electrocuted? What happened to understanding, patience and love when educating our youth? This is an outrage and inhumane.

[stnjhnsn]

Massachusetts should stop treating kids like animals!