Judge Rotenberg Center

The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is a pseudoscientific therapeutic institution in Canton, Massachusetts, United States, whose behavior modification program targeted at people with developmental disabilities and emotional and behavioral disorders has been condemned by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture. The center is known for its use of the graduated electronic decelerator (GED), a torture device that administers electric shocks to residents.

The JRC's behavior modification program uses the methods of applied behavior analysis and relies heavily on aversion therapy. Aversives used at JRC include contingent food programs, movement limitation via long-term restraints, sensory deprivation, and GED shocks. While JRC claims to rely mainly on positive behavior support and contends that aversives are used only as a last resort when positive intervention has failed, state reports have repeatedly found that aversives are used for minor infractions, and that no significant positive behavior support programs exist. While the Food and Drug Administration issued a formal ban on the GED in 2020, the device continued to be used on some residents pending an administrative stay for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2021, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FDA could not issue a "partial stay" but must issue a blanket ban or no ban at all, thus allowing the JRC to continue using the device. In response to this ruling, congress amended the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022. The new amendments allow the FDA to ban a medical device for one use regardless of approval for other uses. This legislation effectively overturned the ruling reached by the D.C. Circuit Court.

The Judge Rotenberg Center was founded by Matthew Israel in 1971 as the Behavior Research Institute (BRI). In 2002, JRC staff tied an autistic boy face-down to a board with four-point restraints and shocked him 31 times at the highest amperage setting. The first shock was given for failing to take off his coat when asked, and the remaining 30 shocks were given for screaming and tensing up while being shocked. The boy was later hospitalized with third degree burns and acute stress disorder, but, as neither the law nor JRC policy had been broken, no action was taken against any of the staff. In a 2007 incident, in response to a prank phone call claiming that two residents were misbehaving, JRC staff restrained and shocked the two 29 and 77 times respectively. In 2011, Matthew Israel was arraigned on charges related to the 2007 incident, though the charges were dropped after Israel resigned from his position as part of a deferred prosecution deal with the Massachusetts Attorney General.

There have been repeated attempts to shut down the center by autism, disability, and human rights advocates. Organizations that oppose the center include the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Disability Rights International and Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth. Six residents have died at the institute since it was founded in 1971.