Sent Away · APM Reports, KUER and The Salt Lake Tribune

7: We Failed You

April 12, 2022·35 min·3 clips

Paris Hilton tells Utah lawmakers she was stripped of human rights and called only 'number 127' at a teen treatment center.

Senate Room 110 is packed. At the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, lawmakers sit under fluorescent lights as cameras wait for Paris Hilton's testimony. She says what happened to her after her parents sent her to Utah for help in the 1990s. She was cut off from the outside world. She was no longer Paris. She became number 127, a child with no ordinary rights, no real voice, and no contact outside the program. The hearing pulls the series' reporting into the room. Paris Hilton's testimony points back to Provo Canyon and to the industry Sent Away has been tracking all along. Then the bill hits a pressure point. Representative Rex Shipp moves to soften the language banning staff from inflicting pain on residents. His amendment would allow pain if staff say it is needed to protect someone's health or safety. That wording matters because of where it came from. Shipp had heard concerns from Havenwood Academy, a program in his district. Havenwood's executive director talks about restraint as something staff need in the toolbox. He gives the example of a bent wrist to stop a child from causing more harm. Senator McKell hears the problem right away. Havenwood's history includes a girl being zip tied and put in a water trough. So the amendment does not sound like housekeeping to him. It sounds like a way to put painful restraint back into a reform bill. The episode sits in that hard spot: a survivor describing control and isolation, and lawmakers debating how much control an institution should still be allowed to use.

As heard by us

A grave, patient episode about Paris Hilton, Utah politics, and the debate over restraints and safety.

Paris Hilton gives the episode its pulse: a gray Senate room, cameras rolling, and a woman describing how a Utah teen treatment program stripped her of name, voice, and basic control.

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Why you'd press play

When Paris Hilton testifies, Utah's restraint debate turns into a public reckoning.

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