“The worst abuse I feel I suffered was having my free will removed- the lack of freedom,” she told People. “I was getting bad grades, and I was mouthy, cutting my arms and smoking cigarettes.”
Pentland also says her mother’s sudden rise in fame contributed to her depression and “acting out” as a teenager. Roseanne Barr was the star of the popular 1990s sitcom “Roseanne.”
According to Pentland, her older sister Jessica was also sent to a psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles, California, after stealing their mother’s car for a joyride.
Pentland clarified she now has a good relationship with both her parents, Roseanne Barr and Bill Pentland, who placed her in the facilities after being referred there by education and behavioral specialists.
Barr’s daughter has stated that she is speaking out now because “these places are still out there and I want it to stop.” Pentland experienced both mental and physical abuse in facilities marketed towards parents of ‘troubled teens’.
In recent years, celebrity socialite Paris Hilton has also opened up and even advocated as a result of her own experiences concerning these facilities. Hilton herself divulged details of the physical and mental abuse she suffered as a teenager in her 2020 documentary “This Is Paris,” most notably at Provo Canyon School, described as a “psychiatric youth residential treatment center.”
In the YouTube documentary, Hilton describes being physically beaten and mentally abused, saying the facilities would force children to take unknown prescription pills that would make her feel “numb,” and would go so far as to lock the children in solitary confinement after making them strip off their clothes.
Pentland’s book “This Will Be Funny Later” will hit shelves on January 18. As for Hilton, she is currently working as an activist and urging the Biden administration to reform the congregate care facilities responsible for catering to parents as a part of the troubled teen industry.