‘Hell Camp’: Paris Hilton and the Troubled Teen Industry’s Abuse Epidemic
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As a victim of the “troubled teen industry,” Paris Hilton spoke on Capitol Hill in 2021 to advocate on behalf of survivors of the controversial child-rehabilitation system. The opening moments of Netflix’s Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare features a clip of Hilton’s speech in front of Congress detailing her experience as a 17-year-old at Provo Canyon School, a youth treatment center in Utah. “I was strangled, slapped across the face, watched in the shower by male staff,” she says.
Hilton’s story sets the tone for Hell Camp, a new documentary shining a light on the wilderness-therapy programs founded by the late Steve Cartisano that have received allegations of physical abuse, sexual assault, and psychological trauma from former attendees and parents. The documentary, released Dec. 27, exposes viewers to Cartisano’s troubling “kidnap and survive” philosophy and the former campers who have been indefinitely scarred from the program. Here’s what we learned in the film.
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The Founder
Steve Cartisano founded the Challenger Foundation, a wilderness therapy program, in 1988, an organization with the aim of reforming rebellious children by implementing survival skills. The program began by abducting children (with parental consent) and forcing them to embark on a 500-mile hike across the Utah desert.
Harrowing Conditions
Matthew, who attended Challenger camp in June 1990, claims in the film that after refusing to go on a hike, his legs were hogtied and his body was dragged across the rocky turf. Eight Challenger attendees say they were “hit, starved, and tied to trees by program supervisors,” according to the documentary. And while at the Pacific Coast Academy, Amber, who attended at age 14, alleges she was sexually abused by a village chief.
The Tragedy of Kristen Chase
In June 1990, 16-year-old Kristen Chase died of heatstroke, collapsing after completing a five-mile day hike in Kane County. After a physician’s assistant administered CPR along the trail, Chase died, according to the documentary. Chase’s death led to the end of the Challenger camp.
Lack of Justice
Cartisano and the Challenger Foundation received several counts of child abuse and a criminal charge of negligent homicide following Chase’s death in 1990. A jury found Cartisano not guilty, but the Challenger founder was largely blacklisted. Chase’s parents also filed a federal lawsuit against Cartisano and the organization, which was settled for $260,000 in 1994.
Cartisano
He went off to establish more wilderness-based teen programs against his family’s wishes. Cartisano founded HealthCare America, a water-based therapy program with stops in Jamaica, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and other tropical locations. It came to a crashing halt when teens were discovered by Puerto Rican authorities tied up to a car, nooses around their neck, and sent home. Next, he founded Pacific Coast Academy, a program based in Samoa with a $25,000 price tag. The under-resourced program was marketed to affluent parents (the Rockefeller family got involved) and Cartisano sent his own son, David, to be abducted and transported to a rural location for an undisclosed time frame. Once a leaked videotape revealed the abuse and gruesome living conditions the teens faced, the U.S. Embassy shut down the program.
The State of Teen Rehab
Although Cartisano died of a heart attack in 2019, his wilderness camps set the foundation for thousands of other programs. More than 120,000 children live in “troubled teen” facilities, which include wilderness programs. Training standards fluctuate drastically from organization to organization, and in 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recorded more than 1,500 employees involved in litigation for abuse in 33 states. And from 2018 to 2021, 13 people were fired or resigned from youth treatment centers in Utah due to sexual behavior and sexual-assault allegations, according to a 2022 investigation by the Salt Lake Tribune.
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