SALT LAKE CITY — With the Utah Legislature marking the midpoint of its annual 45-day session, the issue of regulating centers for troubled teens got a high-profile boost when celebrity Paris Hilton testified on Capitol Hill about her time spent in such a facility in Provo.
Sitting in front of a panel of Utah lawmakers on Monday, Hilton said she's had the same nightmare for the past 20 years in which she's "kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers, strip searched and locked in a facility."
Hilton and other "survivors of the troubled-teen industry" gave chilling testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee in support of SB127, sponsored by Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork. The bill would require treatment centers to document instances of physical restraints and involuntary confinement and submit monthly reports to the Utah Office of Licensing. It would also ban chemical sedation and mechanical restraints unless authorized.