CCHR Mobile Exhibit Comes to Annapolis After Major Youth Rights Win

ANNAPOLIS, MD - The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) brought its new Mobile Exhibit to Susan Campbell Park over Memorial Day Weekend to highlight a major legislative victory for youth rights in Maryland.

The event coincided with the recent passage of the Preventing Abduction in Youth Transport Act of 2025 (HB 497/SB 400), signed into law by Governor Wes Moore on May 6. The law places critical restrictions on youth transport companies - an often-unregulated sector tied to the controversial "troubled teen industry."

For nearly 60 years, CCHR has worked to safeguard human rights in the field of mental health, advocating against abusive or coercive psychiatric practices. Co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, the organization has helped pass more than 180 protective laws worldwide.

The new Maryland law was spurred in part by public outcry and survivor testimonies, including that of celebrity advocate Paris Hilton, who detailed her own traumatic experience of being forcibly transported at age 16. Her testimony, along with input from local advocates like Laurie Townsend of CCHR, helped generate bipartisan support for the bill.

Sponsored by Delegate Vaughn Stewart and Senator Dawn Gile, the legislation bans the use of blindfolds and physical restraints during youth transports, prohibits nighttime removals, and enables civil legal action against violators.

CCHR's Mobile Exhibit provided attendees with in-depth information about psychiatric abuse, survivor accounts and reform efforts both in Maryland and globally.

More information about CCHR and its work can be found at www.cchr.org.