In Alabama, we believe children should be protected and families deserve transparency when they entrust others with their care. When the state sets standards for facilities responsible for vulnerable youth, those standards must mean something. Laws written to safeguard children must be more than words on paper. They must be enforced.
Alabama has long been a state that puts families and children first. When problems arise, our leaders step up and work together to fix them. Let’s do that here.
In 2018, Alabama lawmakers took an important step by passing the Youth Residential Facility Abuse Prevention Act after serious concerns were raised about the safety of children in residential programs. The law established safeguards for facilities entrusted with the care of vulnerable young people. It was the right thing to do.
But passing a law is only the first step. What matters most is what happens afterward.
Since 2018, troubling incidents have revealed what can happen when enforcement gaps allow bad actors to avoid accountability.
In Tuskegee, a 15-year-old boy tragically died by suicide in a residential facility after his family repeatedly raised concerns that he was being sexually abused. Those warnings went unaddressed.
Investigations have also documented serious incidents of staff violence against children at facilities operated by Sequel Youth and Family Services in Owens Cross Roads, Courtland, Tuskegee, and Montgomery. Reports described head trauma, deep lacerations, and cases where children lost consciousness after encounters with staff.
The Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program documented conditions that no child should ever endure — including abuse, neglect, unsafe restraint practices, and unsanitary living conditions. At the Courtland facility, investigators reported blood on windows, feces on floors, and children sleeping on concrete slabs. A 14-year-old boy placed there by the state Department of Human Resources was reportedly beaten repeatedly by staff over ten months until he attempted to take his own life.
At Camp SAYLA, a youth counselor was arrested for physically abusing minors, including beating them with socks filled with potatoes and whipping them with extension cords.
These are not abstract policy failures. These are children. Real kids whose families trusted that our mental health system would keep them safe.
Paris knows what it feels like to be one of those kids. Here’s what she wrote in her own words about her experience.
When I was a teenager, my parents were told that sending me into the troubled teen industry was the only way to help me. They believed they were making the right decision. Instead, I was taken from my bedroom in the middle of the night and transported against my will to facilities where I experienced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. I was placed in solitary confinement, cut off from my family, and had no safe way to report what was happening.
For years, I stayed silent because I believed no one would listen. When I finally spoke out, thousands of survivors came forward with similar stories from programs that operated without meaningful oversight.
That experience is why I’ve spent the last several years working with lawmakers across the country to strengthen protections for vulnerable youth. In Washington D.C, I worked with Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, one of the first co-sponsors of the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, to help advance federal protections for vulnerable youth. Leaders from Alabama have already shown they are willing to stand up for children.
Now Alabama has another opportunity to lead by passing SB 336.
SB 336 does not expand government or burden responsible providers who are doing the right thing. Instead, it closes oversight gaps so facilities cannot avoid accountability. It strengthens transparency and reporting, protects critical records, and ensures law enforcement can fully investigate allegations of abuse.
Parents often turn to residential facilities during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. They deserve to know that the standards Alabama sets for children’s safety are actually being upheld.
Our children deserve nothing less.
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Senator Will Barfoot represents District 25 in the Alabama Senate. Representative Joe Lovvorn represents District 79 in the Alabama House. Paris Hilton is an entrepreneur, advocate, and CEO of 11:11 Media.
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