I was just emailed this story and I am flabbergasted.
We have people in prison for the most horrible of offenses against society, and we have to treat them in a civilized manner. We can’t torture or infringe on their rights, as it should be.
Yet here at this facility for kids with emotional and behavioral problems, as well as retardation and autism, they can torture them.
I question the parents first. Who would let their child be tortured? I mean, behavioral problems do not warrant torture, but even the kids suffering from autism and retardation, what is up with that?
Is there such a thing as an unreachable child with emotional problems so bad they can’t be helped? If there are kids like that, can we torture them? Look at the outrage over Gitmo.
Whether this is something that should be permitted to continue is perhaps dependent on what is actually going on at this facility. There are conflicting versions of the facts.
Are kids being given two seconds of something that feels like a bee sting to correct behaviors like setting fires and gouging out chunks of skin? Or are kids being given intense shocks and burns in response to trivial uncooperativeness? Or maybe there is some of both?
If it is a question of quick minor shocks for cases that would otherwise require restraints, stupefying drugs, lengthy unpleasant confinements, etc. then I am inclined to think the use of shocks should be permitted, although I am not currently 100% sure.
I guess one doubt I have is that it might be too easy to zap a kid with 10 times the amount of electricity permitted and then say it was a mistake. Or maybe rig the equipment up one way most of the time it’s in use and then rig it up a different way just before somebody comes to inspect it. Other types of punishments might be more cruel than minor shocks and less effective on average; but also have less potential for horrendous deniable and/or hidden abuse. e.g. you can’t squeeze a child into a tiny box for a time-out and then plausibly claim later that you measured the box incorrectly, and at the time you thought it was a small room. Also it is clear to any observer that the box is a box and not a room; overly severe confinement is more visible than an overly severe shock.
Maybe the answer is to allow aversive shock treatment for extreme cases but try to deter egregious abuse: by imposing severe criminal penalties for proven intentional substantial violations of standards; and require loss of qualification to administer the treatment for staff members who commit accidental substantial violations of standards? Might not want the standards to be too stringent so as not to interfere too much in dealing with really tough cases, but maybe there should be legal standards setting outer boundaries with serious deterrence against going beyond those boundaries.