“My name is Paris Hilton, I am an institutional abuse survivor and I speak today on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of children currently in residential care facilities across the United States” Hilton stated before the Ways and Means Committee in Washington D.C.
Appearing at Capitol Hill, Paris’s testimony was a loud and clear voice advocating for the youth, sharing all the abuses she suffered when she was a resident at a treatment facility as a teenager.
“When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of night and transported across state lines to the first of four residential facilities,” she said. “These programs promised healing, growth, and support, but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out of a window for two years.”
During her childhood, Paris was sent to multiple facilities such as Provo Canyon School, a youth treatment facility in Utah, but stated her parents “completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing.”
Paris Hilton also revealed that she was ‘force-fed medications’ and ‘sexually abused’ by staff at a youth residential treatment facility as a teenager.
‘I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked, thrown in solitary confinement.’
Paris said she still suffers PTSD from all the abuse and called for the standards of the youth living in foster care to be improved and criticized how they have become a profitable industry that “operates without meaningful oversight”. “Can you only imagine the experience for youth who are placed by the state, and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?” Hilton demanded.
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‘When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of night and transported across state lines to the first of four residential facilities.
‘These programs promised healing, growth, and support, but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely, or even look out of a window for two years.”
Take a look at Paris at 16 years old:
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Paris Hilton, An Advocator For Youth Abuse
‘I’m here to be the voice for children whose voices can’t be heard” she continued.
Paris now suffers from insomnia, anxiety and trust issues following her time at the institution, but this has not stopped her. The media personality has held rallies for survivors and has a website where others can submit their testimonies called Breaking Code Silence.
She also appeared in February 2021 before the Utah State Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee to lobby for a bill to regulate Utah’s schools for troubled teenagers, alleging that children were ‘restrained, hit, thrown into walls, strangled and sexually abused regularly at Provo’.
“For the past 20 years, I have had a recurring nightmare where I’m kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, strip-searched, and locked in a facility. I wish I could tell you that this haunting nightmare was just a dream, but it is not.”
Paris first spoke about her teen years in a 2020 documentary where she also shared about the abuse she endured. “I was verbally, mentally, and physically abused on a daily basis. I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all my human rights.” she shared.
“Without a diagnosis, I was forced to consume medication that made me feel numb and exhausted. I didn’t breathe fresh air or see the sunlight for 11 months.”
