SACRAMENTO, California — Paris Hilton joined California state lawmakers on Monday to push for legislation aimed at cracking down on the industry that cares for troubled teens by requiring more transparency from child welfare agencies.
The bill, backed by the Hilton Hotel heiress and media personality, aims to release information about how short-term residential facilities for youth dealing with substance abuse and behavioral problems use disciplinary methods, such as restraints or seclusion of minors. Such centers should notify parents and the state when they use restraint or seclusion rooms for minors. It was written by Republican Senator Shannon Grove and Democratic Senators Aisha Wahab and Angelique Ashby.
“I know firsthand the horrors that took place behind the closed doors of residential treatment centers for youth,” Hilton said at a news conference Monday at the Capitol. “In troubled teen industries in California, Utah and Montana, I was subjected to abuse disguised as therapy, isolated from the outside world and denied even the most basic rights.”
She added: “I will fight until every child is safe and my big spotlight continues to shine on these abuses.”
Hilton has become a prominent advocate for greater oversight and regulation of treatment centers for teens after publicly sharing the physical and mental abuse she suffered as a teenager at a Utah boarding school. She alleged that staff members would beat her, force her to take unknown pills, watch her shower and send her to solitary confinement without clothes as punishment.
In 2021, her testimony about her experience at Provo Canyon School in Utah helped pass a bill to impose stricter oversight of youth treatment centers in the state. Hilton has also traveled to Washington DC to advocate for federal reforms and helped change laws to protect minors in at least eight states. Earlier this month, she expressed her support for boys being sent to a private school for troubled youth in Jamaica.
She will testify later Monday at a hearing on the bill in California. Under the bill, facilities would be required to report details such as what disciplinary actions were taken, why and who approved the plan. The state department that regulates the facilities would also be required to make the reports public and update the database quarterly. It would not prohibit the use of such practices.
According to Senator Grove’s office, California sent more than 1,240 children with behavioral health problems to out-of-state facilities between 2015 and 2020 due to the lack of locked treatment centers for youth. As reports emerged of abuse at these programs, including an incident in which a 16-year-old boy died after being held at a Michigan facility for approximately twelve minutes, California also found significant licensing violations at these facilities and closed the system abolish. program in 2020. Legislation passed in 2021 formally banned the use of out-of-state residential centers. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom last year also authorized $8 million to bring all minors home.
Minors with behavioral problems are now being sent to short-term residential centers across the state, which were established in 2017 to replace group homes. But under current laws, these facilities are not required to share information about how often they use seclusion rooms and restraints, and how often these methods result in serious injury or death.
“We must demand the highest level of transparency and accountability in the care of our vulnerable population,” Grove, the author, said Monday. “This is a small but crucial measure.”