LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Blindfolds, hoods, handcuffs, chains, and surprise trips in the middle of the night. These are a few of the methods some private companies use to transport children to residential treatment programs – practices a newly proposed bill in Lansing hopes to ban.
“Abusive and traumatizing treatment practices.”
Rep. Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan) spoke on The Steve Gruber Show on Monday about House Bill 5514. He emphasized the need to protect children from what he calls “abusive and traumatizing treatment practices” when they are transported to residential treatment and rehabilitation programs.
“I [know] a lot of adults who were very traumatized by that treatment when they were younger,”Cavitt told Gruber. “Still today they carry that trauma, including Miss Paris Hilton.”
“I truly believed I was being kidnapped.”
Hilton, a reality television star and New York socialite, sent her video testimony where it was viewed by a Michigan House committee last week. She detailed her experience when a crew transported her to a youth residential treatment facility.
“I truly believed I was being kidnapped,” said Hilton, who described the moment as life-changing. She said at the age of 16, she was taken from her bed “in the middle of the night by two men I’d never seen before. They told me I could go the easy way or the hard way,” Hilton said. “I was handcuffed, carried out of my home while I screamed for help.”
Hilton said her parents were advised this was the only way she could get help and believed the decision was best for her safety.
Loose regulations.
While there are laws in Michigan that limit the use of restraints by youth in facilities and childcare institutions, the regulation can slip through the cracks, according to Hilton.
Rep. Cavitt backed up Hilton’s testimony, saying the 13-year-old son of one of constituents endured a similar scenario. “They have straight jackets that they use, they have spit masks that they can use. They certainly are very adept at using leg shackles and handcuffs which is what they did to my constituent’s child.”
The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
