7/24/99
To: Governor Gray Davis
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

From: Paul Smith

Re: Department of Developmental Services: Director Candidates

A study of a leader's enemies can sometimes reveal more about the leader's
ability to perform under pressure than an impressive list of supporters can.
Likewise, a review of the scope and nature of controversial issues addressed
by a leader gives a more reliable picture of that leader's readiness for
appointment than a long list of accomplishments will.
With these maxims in mind, I recommend that your staff carefully scrutinize
Phillip Campbell and Mary Cerreto for appointment to the Executive
leadership positions in the Department of Developmental Services.
I am familiar with their work in Massachusetts because of their principal
enemy, Matthew Israel and the Behavior Research Institute (BRI).  BRI is now
known as the Judge Rothenberg Center.  Dr. Israel has been on several
national TV news magazines defending his use of painful and traumatic
methods of treating children with autism.  You may remember the
controversial methods because BRI replicated its East Coast operations here
in California when Jerry Brown was Governor and Dave Loberg was the Director
of the new Department of Developmental Services.  I was assigned to an
interdepartmental team of investigators after a child in one of Dr. Israel's
facilities in Los Angeles died while handcuffed to his bed.  I continued to
have the "BRI Assignment" in some form until they closed their doors on most
of their California operations in 1989.
While I have spoken with both Phillip Campbell and Mary Cerreto directly,
most of my knowledge about them comes from discussions with Herb Lovett who
was involved in monitoring the BRI operations on the East Coast.  We shared
ideas and observations about BRI, and the difficulties we experienced trying
to find out what they were actually doing to children with developmental
disabilities.  We both considered it a professional honor to be vilified by
BRI.  We both felt that Phillip Campbell and Mary Cerreto were doing the
best they could under difficult circumstances.  When you find that Matthew
Israel is opposed to the appointment of Phillip Campbell and Mary Cerreto, I
recommend that you view Dr. Israel's opposition as a merit badge.
When Matthew Israel says that he has to hurt children in order to help them,
it sounds as nonsensical to me as the Vietnam era military saying they had
to "destroy the village in order to save it."  I am not alone in that
perception.  Most families of children with developmental disabilities feel
that way.  Most service and support professionals feel that way.  Most of
the general public apparently feels that way also.
The Massachusetts Legislature felt strongly enough about it to repeatedly
put laws on the books that would severely restrict the use of pain and
trauma as tools of therapy.  At least two Governors of Massachusetts
supported the strict control of pain and trauma used as therapeutic tools.
Judge Rothenberg disagreed however, and BRI continues to intentionally
injure children with disabilities under the protection of the court.
In California, the laws restricting the use of pain and trauma as tools of
therapy were already on the books when BRI arrived.  As you may recall
however, Matthew Israel was astute enough to retain Edmund "Pat" Brown as
counsel in Los Angeles, and the state monitors suddenly found their hands
tied.
In both California and Massachusetts, state employees were given the task of
protecting children with disabilities from the pain and trauma being
inflicted on them by Matthew Israel and his employees.  In both areas, they
were prevented from doing so by forces beyond their control.
I view the actions of Phillip Campbell and Mary Cerreto as courageous.  They
were trying to do the right thing.  They were following the will of the
Governor they served.  They were working in concert with the established
will of the Legislature.  They were not being the rogue tyrants they are
accused of being in the court transcripts.
My experience in California with the BRI operations was that they were
deceitful with, and abusive to, public employees.  When they were caught
injuring a child with disabilities in a certain way, they would promise
never to do it again.  Then they would find another way to injure children
and call it treatment.  Sometimes they would even return to the same methods
they promised to eschew.  They still use painful electric shocks and
restraint in Massachusetts, under the protection of the court.
What BRI does is wrong.  Phillip Campbell and Mary Cerreto knew it was wrong
and tried to provide the protection the children so obviously needed.  The
fact that they were beaten by skillful legal counsel does not change the
fact they were right.  Might does not make right.
I recommend that you view the controversy they were involved in as a record
of skills learned and knowledge gained.  They may be a good addition to your
team.