Paris Hilton speaks during a news conference on legislation to establish a bill of rights for children placed in congregate care facilities, outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, October 20, 2021. ((Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images))
Hilton added, "I also hope to inspire a more compassionate understanding of how to treat youth with mental health or behavioral needs, as I know from lived experience that sending them far away from everyone they know and love is not a sustainable answer."
The state already took steps to protect children — many of whom are in foster care — from abuse in out-of-state facilities several years ago after passing legislation that de-certified non-California facilities and ordered all youth to return by Jan. 2023. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, allocated $8 million for the immediate return of children in out of state facilities and to bolster behavioral treatment programs.
Grove said she's "grateful" to have Hilton's support for her bill, SB 1043, and said the extra layer of transparency will help eliminate a decades-long problem of child abuse if signed into law.
"The out-of-state programs would keep them sometimes 20 hours in isolation in an empty room," Grove told Fox News Digital on Friday. "We want to make sure that these kids don't cause harm to themselves or others, and that's what those specific places are supposed to be used for, but we want to make sure these kids aren't being traumatized or harmed as well."
PARIS HILTON DETAILS TRAUMA, ABUSE AT ‘TROUBLED TEEN’ FACILITY
California Sen. Shannon Grove (right) (Kelly Sullivan)
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In a New York Times video op-ed series in 2022, Hilton said she was the victim of a "parent-approved kidnapping" when she was a misbehaving 16-year-old, with two men dragging her out of her home and into a congregate-care facility.
"Very late at night, this would be around like three or four in the morning, they would take myself and other girls into this room and they would perform medical exams," Hilton said in the interview. "It wasn’t even with a doctor, it was a couple of different staff members, where they would have us lay on the table and put their fingers inside of us."
Last year, Hilton stood alongside U.S. lawmakers co-sponsoring the bipartisan Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act. The bicameral bill, authored by Cornyn, Tuberville, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Earl Carter, R-Ga., was introduced last April and aims to provide stronger oversight for residential youth treatment programs to identify and prevent child abuse.
Hilton and Grove will present their bill during a press conference in Sacramento on Monday.
Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.
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