Paris Hilton testified at a Capitol Hill committee hearing today (Picture: Getty)
Paris Hilton has revealed that she was ‘force-fed medications’ and ‘sexually abused’ by staff at a youth residential treatment facility as a teenager – 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 multiple facilities during her childhood.
Appearing at Capitol Hill, she spoke in support of huge reforms to the system, calling for the standards of those living in foster care to be improved.
‘I know from personal experience the harm that is caused by being placed in youth residential treatment facilities,’ she said before the Ways and Means Committee in Washington.
‘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.
She opened up on her harrowing experience at youth residential treatment facilities (Picture: Getty)
‘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.’
‘My parents were completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing,’ she continued.
‘Can you only imagine the experience for youth who are placed by the state, and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?
‘This $23 billion-a-year industry sees this population as dollar signs and operates without meaningful oversight.’
She said that she was ‘force-fed medications’ by staff members (Picture: Getty)
After reading case studies, Paris declared: ‘I’m here to be the voice for children whose voices can’t be heard.’
Paris’ parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, sent her to Provo Canyon School, a youth treatment facility in Utah at the age of 17.
In the last few years, she has bravely opened up about the abuse she experienced at the hands of some staff members, sharing that she still suffers PTSD.
Speaking in her 2020 documentary, This Is Paris, she also claimed that she was left with insomnia, anxiety and trust issues following her time at the institution.
Since the special aired, she has held a rally for survivors of alleged abuse, and has launched a website where others who have been abused can submit their testimonies.
Paris called for changes to be made to foster care and treatment facilities (Picture: AFP)
In February, 2021, the mom-of-two appeared before the Utah State Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee to lobby for a bill to regulate Utah’s schools for troubled teenagers.
While there, she discussed her experience, alleging that children were ‘restrained, hit, thrown into walls, strangled and sexually abused regularly at Provo’.
‘My name is Paris Hilton, I am an institutional abuse survivor and I speak today on behalf of the hundreds …read more
Source:: Metro
