Rick Bowmer / AP
Paris Hilton speaks to the Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary, Police and Criminal Justice at the Utah State Capitol on February 8, 2021, in Salt Lake City.
Paris Hilton told Utah lawmakers on Monday about the abuse she suffered at various treatment centers for troubled teenagers, while urging them to pass legislation requiring more regulation of programs.
Hilton, 39, spent time at three of the facilities when she was a teenager, including nearly a year at Provo Canyon School, where she said she was “verbally, mentally and physically abused daily” when she was 16.
“Although Provo Canyon School called itself a first-rate treatment center, it was like hell itself on Earth,” said Hilton. “I cried myself to sleep every night, praying to wake up from this nightmare.”
Provo Canyon School, which remains open, has faced widespread accusations of mistreatment, including beatings, drug addiction and sexual abuse of clients, as well as isolating them from their families so they cannot get help.
Hilton broke the silence about the trauma she experienced in her documentary This is Paris, and in October he led a protest calling for the school to be closed.
. @ ParisHilton joined the Senate in the afternoon. She will testify at the Senate Judiciary, Police and Criminal Justice Committee this afternoon about her time at a residential youth treatment center. #utpol #utleg
In his testimony, Hilton said that the traumas that Provo Canyon School inflicted on her began immediately after joining the program and upset her today.
“For the past 20 years, I had a recurring nightmare where I was kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, searched and locked up in a facility,” she said. “I wish I could say that this scary nightmare was just a dream, but it is not.”
“When I was 16, two transporters woke me up in the middle of the night with handcuffs,” she continued. “They asked me if I wanted to go the easy way or the hard way. They carried me out of my house while I was screaming at the top of my lungs for help from my parents.”
Hilton had previously participated in two similar “troubled teen industry” programs and was abused in both, including being strangled by a team member, she said.
At Provo Canyon School, Hilton said she “did not breathe fresh air or see sunlight for 11 months” and was “forced to take drugs that left me numb and exhausted”. At least once, she was placed in solitary confinement “for no reason”.
“A day of isolation felt like a week,” she said. “That little room covered with scratches and blood stains without a bathroom is one of the most vivid and traumatic memories I have ever experienced in my life.”
The facility’s employees were “bad and sadistic and seemed to enjoy their power in being able to abuse children,” she said. She remembers seeing children being beaten, restrained, thrown against walls, strangled and even sexually abused.
“There was no privacy – whenever I used the bathroom or showered, I was monitored,” she said. “At 16, as a child, I felt his penetrating eyes looking at my naked body. I was just a child and I felt violated every day ”.
Hilton added that communication with family members was censored, so she was unable to report what was happening.
Provo Canyon School said in a statement that it was sold to Universal Health Services in 2000 and therefore cannot comment on previous incidents. SUS spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hilton’s testimony.
Francisco Kjolseth / AP
Aerial shot of the Provo Canyon School Springville campus on January 30, 2021
But some staff members from before that time remained employed with their new owners, Hilton said, noting that an employee who “boasted to other students that she broke Paris Hilton” was not fired until October, after her documentary was released. on the air.
Universal Health Services is a huge network of psychiatric hospitals that was the subject of an investigation by BuzzFeed News, which revealed a series of allegations, including fraud, abuse and locking patients for longer than clinically necessary.
After Utah lawmakers approved the bill, state senator Mike McKell, who sponsored the legislation, applauded Hilton in a tweet for talking about it.
“I am grateful for survivors like Paris Hilton, who are using their platform and voice to draw attention to an industry that is in desperate need of reform,” said McKell. “As a state, we will take the necessary steps to increase transparency and security to prevent further abuse.”
Hilton said that opening up publicly about what she endured has been difficult, but she hopes it can bring about change to help children still living at Provo Canyon School and in many centers like this.
“I’ll be honest – talking about something so personal was, and still is, scary,” she said. “But I can’t sleep at night knowing that there are children who are suffering the same abuse as I and so many others are, and neither should you.”
“I don’t know if my nightmares will go away, but I know that there are hundreds of thousands of children going through it now,” said Hilton. “And maybe if I stop their nightmares, it will stop mine too.”