Matthew Israel

Matthew Israel is a controversial American behavioral psychologist who is known for founding the Judge Rotenberg Center and inventing the Graduated Electronic Decelerator,[1] a device used by the center on disabled students, and condemned as torture by advocacy groups and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

As a freshman in college, Israel read B. F. Skinner's novel, Walden Two, in which the heroes build a utopia by conditioning the residents of a commune through the behaviorist principles of reward and punishment.

[4] After starting the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, he gave up on further attempts to build a utopia because he was getting so much satisfaction from running the school.

[1] In 2011, Israel was indicted on criminal charges of child endangerment, obstructing justice, and acting as an accessory after the fact.

In 1950, Israel enrolled at Harvard University as a Fine Arts major, having found "traditional psychology difficult to take".

[8] During this time he read Skinner's book, Walden Two, in which the heroes build a utopia by conditioning the residents of a commune through the behaviorist principles of reward and punishment.

After a series of letters between Israel and Dan, in which Marnie's opinion on the matter was not at any point discussed, the couple decided not to join.

[12] In 1967, Israel tried for the first time to build a utopian commune modeled after Walden Two by starting a small communal house in Arlington.

The girl's mother agreed to let Israel try to modify her behavior: he described the use of positive reinforcement, time-out, and physical punishment.

[4] In 1977, the California Department of Health rejected Israel's application for a license to operate a group home, citing lack of meaningful peer review, and unnecessary use of painful aversives.

But the day after the scheduled shut down, a group of parents reopened it as a co-op, moving Israel's official position of executive director to consultant.

[3] Following the death of a student and an investigation by the State of California, in 1981 the institute was barred from using physical aversives, employing restraints, and withholding meals as punishment.

JRC moved from its original location near Providence, Rhode Island to its current facilities in Canton, Massachusetts in 1996.

[1] In 2011, Israel was indicted on criminal charges of child endangerment, obstructing justice, and acting as an accessory after the fact.