Paris Hilton left and Jen Robison lead a protest calling for the shutdown of Provo Canyon School in Utah, where they allege they were abused. This was not just insomnia. It was trauma. With restrained use of dramatic re-creations and real life home videos adding visual context, Robison and other survivors from troubled teen facilities tell their stories, which often bear striking similarities: A troubled child acts out as a teenager and is shipped off to an institution.
The teenager spends months, even years, in a facility where they are subjected to cultlike discipline, from having their heads shaved to being thrown in isolation cells to systematic emotional and physical abuse. They realize the only way to survive is to comply. The longer someone is kept in a facility, the longer the monthly fees keep coming in.
By the time Jen Robison was 14, she had been put on Prozac and had attempted suicide, and her parents sent her to Provo Canyon, where she said she was taken to a utility closet, told to take off her clothes and strip searched. We all had a good laugh at the expense of this brat, right? Cut to present day, and Bregoli, who has remained in the public eye as a rapper and internet personality and has been involved in a number of dust-ups and controversies , says she was clearly in need of help when she appeared on the show and was confronted by Dr.
Phil McGraw, who had all the power, all the leverage, on his side. She was put on suicide watch and says she had to sleep on the floor. They will come back with depression, they will come back with anxiety, and I have to live like this for the rest of my fing life.
Cut to a clip of Dr. You tell me. Robison lives in Oregon with her husband and her young daughter. The Sun-Times is free but the journalism is not. Reader support powers the news. Here's how you can help. The Hardest-Working Paper in America. My Account Manage Account Log out. Home Delivery Donate. Menu News. Show Search Search Query Search. By Richard Roeper. A three-part docuseries available Wednesday on Max. Oscar predictions Look for architecture epic 'The Brutalist' to grab the gold.
