{"id":132398,"date":"2026-01-19T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/?p=132398"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:10:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:10:45","slug":"cchr-white-paper-calls-for-federal-and-state-enforcement-against-abusive-youth-facilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.send2press.com\/wire\/cchr-white-paper-calls-for-federal-and-state-enforcement-against-abusive-youth-facilities\/","title":{"rendered":"CCHR White Paper Calls for Federal and State Enforcement Against Abusive Youth Facilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Jan. 19, 2026 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — A sweeping new white paper released by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR)<\/a> warns lawmakers that abuse, neglect, preventable deaths, and fraud remain endemic in the troubled teen treatment industry and for-profit psychiatric hospitals, despite years of warnings, litigation, and media investigations.<\/p>\n

\"CCHR
Image caption: New report cites abuse, deaths, fraud, and systemic regulatory failure; backs Senate BRIDGES for Kids Act.<\/em><\/p>\n

The report<\/a> calls for mandatory transparency, automatic enforcement triggers, criminal accountability, and the withdrawal of public funding from facilities that harm children and vulnerable adults\u2014arguing that reform without enforcement has repeatedly failed.<\/p>\n

CCHR welcomed the recent introduction of the BRIDGES for Kids Act, sponsored by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, describing the legislation as \u201clong overdue\u201d after decades of documented abuse across residential treatment centers and psychiatric hospitals.[1]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence is overwhelming,\u201d said Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International. \u201cThis is not a problem of a few bad actors. It is a systemic psychiatric failure driven by a profit-based institutional model that has operated with minimal oversight and little accountability, and often at taxpayer expense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BRIDGES for Kids Act would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a national, publicly accessible dashboard disclosing inspection results, restraint and seclusion use, staffing levels, licensing status, and serious complaints. States would be required to respond to critical complaints within 48 hours and initiate investigations when violations are identified.<\/p>\n

CCHR\u2019s white paper documents why such measures are needed: up to 45% of inpatient mental health patients reported experiencing sexual violence during admission.[2] Separately, the Joint Commission reported a 77% increase in hospital assault incidents over two years, with nearly half involving sexual assault.[3]<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not isolated incidents,\u201d Eastgate states. \u201cThey reflect a regulatory vacuum in which abuse becomes predictable rather than exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n

The white paper highlights escalating litigation and criminal prosecutions involving some of the nation\u2019s largest for-profit psychiatric hospital chains.<\/p>\n

In January 2026, a Pennsylvania court ordered a trial to proceed against a former employee at one facility, charged with felony child endangerment and aggravated assault following an alleged assault captured on surveillance video.[4]<\/p>\n

In Illinois and Virginia, juries returned awards totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to patients sexually abused in for-profit psychiatric hospitals, citing chronic understaffing, inadequate supervision, and cost-cutting practices that placed children at extreme risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a fiduciary standpoint, these companies and psychiatrists treating children and teens represent extraordinary legal and reputational risk,\u201d Eastgate explained. \u201cFrom an ethical standpoint, no level of profit justifies investment in behavioral institutions repeatedly linked to child abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

CCHR\u2019s report devotes substantial attention to other major for-profit operators that were scrutinized in a 2024 U.S. Senate investigation titled Warehouses of Neglect<\/em>, which concluded that abuse in youth residential treatment facilities occurs \u201cinevitably and by design\u201d due to a business model that treats children as revenue streams.[5]<\/p>\n

Since then, one major chain has faced facility closures following allegations of rape and assault, and enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice. Investigations by The New York Times<\/em> detailed alleged overbilling, falsified records, and coercive confinement to maximize insurance reimbursement.[6]<\/p>\n

Despite these findings, CCHR\u2019s report notes that more than 70% of one hospital chain\u2019s revenue continues to come from Medicaid and Medicare.<\/p>\n

Beyond individual cases, CCHR\u2019s report identifies what it calls the underlying source of the crisis: a psychiatric system that offers no scientifically demonstrable cures and instead relies on prolonged institutionalization, behavioral control, and drug-centered management. \u201cWhen treatment does not resolve illness, facilities profit by extending confinement\u2014not by achieving recovery,\u201d the report states. \u201cIn for-profit settings, this creates incentives for understaffing, coercion, and neglect. Abuse is not aberrational; it is structural.\u201d<\/p>\n

The white paper<\/a> concludes with a call for immediate legislative and regulatory action:<\/p>\n