Did You Know That the Judge Rotenberg Center Has Gotten Its Death Sentence?
Question by Teddy & Chiliswoman: Did you know that the Judge Rotenberg Center has gotten its death sentence?
Medicaid will no longer pay for kids to be there as of May 15th. And the state of Massachusetts is rescinding it’s approval to use restraints and aversives. SO the JRC will not have kids to torture anymore. Since someone posted about this place not to long ago, I thought people might like to know. Sometimes the acts of advocates and activists pays off. It has taken decades to close this place down, but it looks like its end is near.
More details:
The Massachusetts Governor’s office filed a motion Thursday that would
vacate a 1987 Consent Decree that has been an agreement with JRC that
aversives, including electric shock, could be used as long as a judge
approves their use on each individual. It is clear from the recent letter
from the former student and other evidence that judges have been approving
the use of electric shock without being provided a clear picture of the
behaviors the person has exhibited often non-dangerous or even comforting
behaviors such as wiggling one´s fingers, talking to another resident or
getting out of one´s chair without permission. If the Governor’s office is
able to put an end to the consent decree, Mass. State departments will have
the ability to disallow the use of all aversive procedures including
electric shock through regulations and will have more flexibility in
protecting the residents of JRC.
More good news made public today –the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) in their first effort on this issue about which I am aware,
sent a letter to the Mass. Office of Health and Human Services saying CMS
would no longer allow federal Medicaid money to be used for anyone who lives
at a facility that uses electric shock interventions, even if that person is
not receiving the treatment themselves.
It appears that the combined efforts of the Department of Justice, the Food
and Drug Administration and CMS motivated by the recent letter from the
former student and so many amazing advocates who have fought this battle for
years, may finally be coming together in a number of efforts aimed at ending
these horrendous practices for good.
Aut-Echo Some states have eliminated all institutions except for short-stay psychiatric, but other states hold onto the past. JRC was a private institutions and had few residents from the state it was in. Many of its residents were from neighboring New York State.
Closing JRC won’t be like the closing of many institutions – few of the residents originally came from the same place (New York is bigger than England). And there will be a huge concern that these people are cared for exceptionally well and monitored as the JRC is a very wealthy business and they will do their upmost to prove that they are the only one who can provide care so they can get back into the business of torture.
This is a long overdo end to one of the greatest abominations the US has been party to.
Edit – ended all LARGE institutions, small community based institutions remain. Unless a person chooses where they live, who they live with, and what staff they have – it is still an institution in my book.
Best answer:
Answer by gardensallday
Great news! Tx for posting.
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