Celebrity socialite Paris Hilton visited the White House Tuesday to advocate a stricter policy on youth care facilities.
“So honored to be back in DC to continue my advocacy work,” Hilton tweeted. “I am so glad to see that the most powerful office in the world is dedicated to fighting for the rights of all.”
Hilton released a documentary in 2020 detailing the abuse she suffered at congregate care facilities for troubled teenagers in Utah. Parents, the juvenile justice system, child welfare, mental health providers, and other groups sent teenagers to these facilities for treatment.
The celebrity’s billionaire parents sent her to four different facilities because of her unruly lifestyle as a teenager. Since the launch of the documentary, Hilton has advocated closer regulation of these facilities that she says get away with perpetrating emotional, physical, and sexual abuse due to lax laws.
PARIS HILTON THANKS CINDY MCCAIN, CALLS FOR BIPARTISAN SUPPORT ON LEGISLATION AGAINST CHILD ABUSE
So honored to be back in DC to continue my advocacy work. I had such an inspiring time meeting with policy staff & walking the halls of the West Wing with advocates. I am so glad to see that the most powerful office in the world is dedicated to fighting for the rights of all. pic.twitter.com/glhLgIyARu
— ParisHilton.eth (@ParisHilton) May 10, 2022
Over the course of two years, Hilton said she was slapped in the face, made to shower while under the surveillance of male employees, forced to take medication despite not having a diagnosis, and placed in solitary confinement, among other things.
After lobbying Utah legislators for change by telling her story, Hilton saw success when the state enacted a law in March ramping up government oversight of such facilities.
In October, Hilton visited the Capitol to lobby Congress to create federal legislation similar to Utah’s because “state-by-state patchwork of limited, weak oversight and inconsistent licensing requirements is not working.”
Subsequent legislation, fluctuating between the names the Accountability for Congregate Care Act and the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, is sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Their bill has yet to be introduced.
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As many as 200,000 minors are currently in congregate care facilities across the United States, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Unsilenced.
