The Paris Hilton Jail Sentence: Fair Treatment or Feeding Frenzy
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When Paris Hilton was sentenced to jail, the news media everywhere clamored to publicize this fact quickly. There were some who said the treatment was harsh, and that the Paris Hilton jail sentence was only handed down by the judge because of the celebrity status in the case. There were other public opinions that voiced the sentiment that the sentence was fair.
First, let’s look at the facts in this case, without any opinion or prejudice for or against Paris Hilton. The Paris Hilton jail sentence story all began when the socialite was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence on September 7, 2006 in Hollywood. Because of this, her license was suspended and she received probation and fines that totaled just fewer than fifteen hundred dollars. Paris Hilton was caught twice by police while she was driving, even though her license was still suspended, and she was still on probation. Prosecutors decided that this was a violation of probation, and the Paris Hilton jail sentence was handed down. During this same time period, Paris Hilton was also late for court.
The Paris Hilton jail sentence originally called for 45 days, and an appeal was filed. This appeal was dropped after the sentence was shortened to 23 days. Further media attention was drawn to the Paris Hilton jail sentence story when it became known that the sheriff released Paris Hilton after only a few days of her sentence and put her on home restriction. The judge, Michael Sauer, ordered that the Paris Hilton jail sentence would stand, and she was given a police escort from her home to court, where she was returned to jail to finish out the sentence.
The sheriff stated that he commuted the Paris Hilton jail sentence because of her medical problems, and the fact that she is such a high visibility celebrity. The medical problems in question are psychological in nature, not physical, and the jails in Los Angeles and California are full of inmates who have mental disorders, but these inmates are not released because of this.
A lot of people think that the Paris Hilton jail sentence was set aside by the sheriff because she is a socialite from a very wealthy family of privilege and power. But a story that ran in the Los Angeles newspaper showed that the few days Paris Hilton served the first time, before she was released and incarcerated again, is the normal length of time that approximately 60% of the inmates with a similar sentence would serve before being released. Did her celebrity status actually cause the Paris Hilton jail sentence to be longer than it would have been if she were not a celebrity?
With all of the media attention surrounding the Paris Hilton jail sentence, did she get fair treatment? In this instance, the fact that she was a rich socialite may have caused the judge to use her as an example, to show that the wealthy and privileged would be punished harshly just like anyone else. The bottom line is that Paris Hilton got caught driving after she had been drinking, and this is a very serious offense that can cause innocent people to get hurt and killed. Paris Hilton then proceeded to drive with her license suspended, not once but twice. Whether she is rich or not, this disregard for the safety of the community and the law must be punished. Even if 60% of unknown inmates would have been released after a few days in jail as the sheriff and newspaper stated, another 40% would not have been released. Maybe the Paris Hilton jail sentence was fair. After all, she was treated like 40% of the other inmates.
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