While appearing in front of a congressional committee to urge lawmakers to enhance child welfare protections, Paris Hilton opened up about her experience being institutionalized as a teenager. “These programs promised healing, growth, and support, but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out a window for two years,” she testified on Wednesday. “I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked, and thrown into solitary confinement.” Hilton said she was “ripped” from her bed and taken to the first of four facilities at age 16. Hilton has previously alleged that she was emotionally, verbally, and physically abused by staff at Provo Canyon School, a Utah-based boarding school and psychiatric treatment center where she once spent 11 months. (Provo said it did not condone any form of abuse and noted that its ownership had changed in 2000, which was after she left.)
Hilton has been a vocal critic of such facilities, suggesting that they belong to an industry that is more about profit than about the so-called troubled youth they are supposed to help. She told Congress that her parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, were “deceived” and “manipulated” about “inhumane treatment” she was allegedly subjected to, and expressed concern that foster children and adoptees who don’t have people regularly checking in on them are in an even worse predicament. Ultimately, Hilton called for lawmakers to authorize legislation (including the now-expired Title IV-B of the Social Security Act and the proposed Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act) to do more to keep children from being put in these facilities in the first place. Near the end of her testimony, she directly addressed kids who are still in the system. “I see you, I believe you, I know what you’re going through, and I won’t give up on you,” she said. “You are important, and your future is important, and you deserve every opportunity to be safe and supported.”
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