Paris Hilton urges federal reform of youth treatment facilities while sharing her story of traumatic abuse

Paris Hilton described traumatic abuse during her time at a residential youth treatment facility in public testimony Wednesday before a House committee, urging lawmakers to institute laws that would protect vulnerable children.

Hilton, whose great-grandfather founded Hilton Hotels, advocated for federal oversight over such facilities and described her own experience with them. She told the House Ways and Means Committee she was 16 when she was taken from her bed in the middle of the night and transferred to such a center.

At the time, Hilton was struggling with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, getting poor grades and skipping classes. Someone recommended to her parents that she be sent to a treatment facility for kids.

"These programs promised 'healing, growth and support' but instead did not allow me to speak, move freely or even look out a window for two years," Hilton said. "I was force-fed medications and sexually abused by the staff. I was violently restrained and dragged down hallways, stripped naked and thrown into solitary confinement."

Hilton described her parents as having been "completely deceived" about her treatment at the Provo Canyon School.

"My parents had no idea; they just thought it was going to be a normal boarding school," she said. "And when I got there, there was no therapy. We would just constantly be torn down, abused, screamed at, yelled at. No education whatsoever. I learned nothing there except trauma."

The Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general’s office said in a report Wednesday that many states are failing to track how frequently children in foster care facilities are abused, sexually assaulted or improperly restrained, leaving them vulnerable to