Paris Hilton has revealed she was ‘drugged’ and ‘sexually abused’ by staff at a residential youth care facility when she was young – while testifying before a US House of Representatives committee hearing today.
The 43-year-old has been vocal about the abuse she endured after being sent to various facilities as a child.
Appearing on Capitol Hill, he spoke in support of major reforms to the system, calling for the standards of those living in foster care to be improved.
‘I know from personal experience the harm caused by being placed in a youth residential treatment facility,’ he said before the Ways and Means Committee in Washington.
‘When I was 16, I was pulled from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four residential facilities.
“The program promised healing, growth and support, but it did not allow me to speak, move freely or even look out the window for two years.
‘I was drugged and sexually abused by staff. I was violently controlled and dragged through the corridors, stripped naked, thrown into solitary confinement.’
“My parents were lied to, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry over the inhumane treatment I experienced,” she continued.
‘Can you just imagine the experience for youths who are placed by the state, and no one regularly checks on them?
‘This $23 billion a year industry sees this population as a dollar sign and operates without meaningful oversight.’
After reading the case study, Paris announced: ‘I am here to be a voice for children whose voices cannot be heard.’
Paris’s parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, sent her to the Provo Canyon School, a juvenile treatment facility in Utah when she was 17 years old.
In the past few years, she has bravely opened up about the abuse she suffered from some staff members, revealing that she still suffers from PTSD.
Speaking in the 2020 documentary, This Is Paris, she also claimed that she suffered from insomnia, anxiety and trust issues after her time in the institution.
Since the special aired, he has held rallies for survivors of alleged abuse, and has launched a website where others who have been abused can post their testimonies.
In February, 2021, the two mothers appeared before the Utah State Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee to lobby for a bill to regulate Utah schools for troubled teens.
While there, he discussed his experiences, stating that children were ‘held back, beaten, thrown against walls, strangled and sexually abused on a regular basis in Provo’.
“My name is Paris Hilton, I am a victim of institutional abuse and I speak today on behalf of hundreds of thousands of children who are currently in residential care facilities in the United States,” she said.
‘For the past 20 years, I’ve had constant nightmares where I’ve been abducted in the middle of the night by someone, searched, and locked in a facility. I wanted to say that this nightmare was just a dream, but it wasn’t.
‘I was verbally, mentally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all human rights.
‘Without a diagnosis, I was forced to take medication that made me feel tired and exhausted. I didn’t breathe fresh air or see the sun for 11 months.
‘There is zero privacy. Every time I use the bathroom or shower, it is monitored. At the age of 16 – as a child – I felt piercing eyes staring at my naked body. I’m just a kid and I feel violated every day.’
Provo Canyon School, which opened in 1971, was sold by the previous ownership in 2000, with the new owners saying they could not comment on ‘operations or patient experiences’ before this time.
In a statement, they said staff did not use self-confinement as a ‘form of intervention’ or prescribe ‘drugs or any medication as a means of discipline’.
The statement read: ‘We do not condone or promote any form of abuse. Any and all alleged/suspected abuse is reported immediately to our state regulatory authorities, law enforcement and Child Protective Services, as required.
‘We are committed to providing high quality care for young people with special, and often complex, emotional, behavioral and psychiatric needs.’
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