Sen. Tommy Tuberville partnered with Paris Hilton and a bi-partisan group of senators to introduce a bill that aims to end abuse at youth residential treatment facilities.

“I’ve been to some of these facilities … they cost about what it costs to go to Harvard, but most of them look like something that came out of a Charles Dickens movie – gloomy, dark,” Tuberville said at a news conference Thursday in Washington, where he was joined by Hilton, whose sexual abuse at a Utah facility while she was a teen spurred her championing the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act. “It’s not something you’d want to be proud of.”

Tuberville joined Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; John Cornyn, R-Texas, Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.; Christopher Murphy, D-Conn.; and Susan Collins, R-Maine in sponsoring the legislation.

He said there is not enough oversight of youth residential treatment facilities, pointing to abuse, neglect and bullying at the institutions.

“There’s an old saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant. We need to open our eyes and put sun on what’s going on in this country with these facilities,” the senator said. “We need more sunlight so we can stop the waste, the fraud, the drugs and the abuse. It’s time it stops.”

Hilton has become an advocate for youth in such facilities and pushed for lawmakers to address the issue.

“For decades, children have experienced widespread abuse, neglect, and preventable death in youth residential programs across the country,” she said. “Meanwhile, this deceptive multi-billion-dollar industry has operated without any real accountability or transparency. At long last, this is finally beginning to change with the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act. As a survivor, I am proud to stand with bipartisan congressional leaders who are working to protect our nation’s most vulnerable youth.”

Tuberville said the problems at such facilities are a “nationwide issue,” and Alabama is not immune to the crisis.

A 15-year-old resident at a Tuskegee youth facility filed a lawsuit last month claiming he attempted suicide after enduring physical, sexual and verbal abuse from staff and residents at the facility.

Sequel of Alabama was also sued for wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of Connor Bennett, who died by suicide in 2022 after he claimed he was repeatedly sexually, emotionally and physically abused at the facility and his pleas for help ignored.

Another lawsuit against the psychiatric facility on behalf of yet another 15-year-old boy claimed it was a “house of horrors” for Tevin Pike who alleges he was “choked, beaten, punched, slapped and slammed to the ground’’ by employees and other residents during his brief time there.