The law does require programs to provide participants with access to unmonitored communication with their families, which Logan’s family said they were denied while he was at Provo Canyon School.Ĭritics said tighter limits are needed on residential programs’ use of seclusion, restraint, and medication, in addition to more regulation of the use of degrading disciplinary practices and aversive behavioral interventions such as food deprivation.Ī new push to pass a federal law is now brewing, with a measure called the Accountability for Congregate Care Act. It also increases the number of inspections per year for each program and requires programs to report use of physical restraints and incidents of seclusion to the licensing office, although it does not ban or significantly restrict the practices. The law bans chemical sedation and mechanical restraints unless authorized by the Utah Office of Licensing. Hilton’s revelation and an investigation by The Salt Lake Tribune ushered in calls for change from former program attendees who shared similar experiences. Utah’s law was championed by advocates and celebrity heiress Paris Hilton, who testified before the Utah Legislature that she experienced abuse while attending Provo Canyon School as a teenager. Its new law, which took effect in March 2021, marks the state’s first attempt in 15 years to bring more regulation to the industry. Utah is the troubled teen industry’s epicenter, offering a wide variety of these programs. But in many other states, there is little to no oversight. Among them is Montana, whose 2019 law led to the closure of several programs California, whose 2016 law required residential treatment programs to operate on a nonprofit basis to ensure that financial incentives do not affect the quality of care and Oregon, whose various laws have aimed to crack down on the so-called troubled teen industry, including a 2021 law that regulates “secure transport” companies hired to forcibly take kids to wilderness or residential programs. A handful of states besides Utah have passed laws to bolster protections for young people in these programs. That’s left regulation largely to the states, with mixed results. Efforts to pass federal legislation that would regulate them failed every year for more than a decade, even after a 2007 Government Accountability Office report detailed allegations of abuse and neglect, along with deaths and deceptive marketing practices at programs across the country. No federal laws govern these private, for-profit residential treatment programs, boot camps, and wilderness programs. Further, they say, oversight is often weak and enforcement of the new law has been lax. “If we’re still doing the same thing, there’s never going to be a change,” Leon said.įor groups pressing for more accountability for these programs, Leon’s story shows that the new law doesn’t go far enough. Leon said the dismissals show the state law isn’t enough to hold accountable an industry that makes billions of dollars treating kids with behavioral or substance use problems. Leon’s complaints about what happened to her nephew while he was at Provo Canyon School were dismissed as unsubstantiated or hit dead ends. Secluding a student from others is still allowed under the new rules, for example, but program operators must now report to regulators when they do so. Trish Leon, aunt of the 12-year-old, Logan, contacted various state agencies, the Utah governor’s office, elected officials and youth rights nonprofits - but soon discovered the law’s limits. Before long, he was forced into seclusion, denied communication with his family and given antipsychotic medication without parental permission, according to relatives. Spencer Cox signed a law meant to provide stronger oversight of the more than 100 residential youth treatment programs operating in the state, a 12-year-old boy arrived at one of them, Provo Canyon School.
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