Paris Hilton is opening up about the abuse she experienced as a child.
On Wednesday (June 26), the heiress, businesswoman and DJ testified to Congress about the abuse she went through while she was institutionalized as a teen in “in-profit” youth behavioral treatment facilities. She strongly implored for greater federal oversight of youth care programs during her testimony.
Paris alleged that when she was at four various facilities for troubled teens, she was “force-fed medications and sexually abused by staff.”
She recalled, “When I was 16 years old, I was ripped from my bed in the middle of the night and transported across state lines to the first of four youth residential treatment facilities.”
She went on, saying, “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.”
Paris heartbreakingly shared, “I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked, and thrown into solitary confinement. Can you only imagine the experience for youth who are placed by the state and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?”
She stated that her parents were “completely deceived, lied to and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing.”
Paris added that since then, she has visited facilities with foster and adopted youth, and that she was moved by the stories and experiences of “innocent kids who have not committed crimes, kids whose parents didn’t have resources to support them, kids whose parents passed away – kids who have already experienced trauma.”
Paris revealed her abuse at youth treatment facilities for the first time in 2020. She has since then been a staunch advocate for better protection for all all institutionalized teens and children.
