Liberation of Paris: Hilton Leaves Jail for Home

June 7, 2007 — -- Inmate No. 9818783 has left the building.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced Paris Hilton's release from jail this morning.

According to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, Hilton was "reassigned" for medical reasons. She will receive credit for serving five days of her sentence.

Whitmore said, "With the help of medical personnel and doctors, it was determined that she be reassigned to a community-based electronic monitoring program."

In other words, Hilton is now under house arrest. She will be confined to her home and required to wear an ankle bracelet for 40 days. The ankle bracelet has a range of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet.

If she leaves her home, Whitmore said, she will most likely be remanded to court and her jail time will be bumped up to 90 days. Hilton's sentence was shortened from 45 days to 23 days because of state rules allowing shorter sentences for good behavior.

"Because she has agreed to this through her attorney, her sentence is now back up to 45 days. She has already served five days, so that's 40 days," Whitmore said.

Through her attorney, Paris Hilton issued a written statement thanking the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for treating her fairly. The statement went on to say, "I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes."

Under the terms of her house arrest, Hilton was allowed to stroll outside, get the mail and maybe even throw a party if she wanted, said Bob Taylor of the the Los Angeles County Probation Department.

Any trip beyond her home would require the permission of the Probation Department.

Taylor said that while normally those under house arrest with a 9-to-5 job are allowed to go to work, it would have been very unlikely the socialite would be given permission to attend a party or an event for which she would be paid.

But Taylor said Hilton could even invite guests or even throw a party and sip cocktails, because nobody would monitor who was in her home or how she behaved.

Hilton's not the only celebrity who has been assigned an ankle bracelet. Last month, a Los Angeles judge ordered former "Saturday Night Live" star Tracy Morgan to wear the bracelet for 90 days for violating probation for a drunken driving arrest. Morgan wore the bracelet while he hosted Spike TV's Guys Choice Awards.

"Lost" star Michelle Rodriguez turned the ankle bracelet into a fashion statement when she wore it to New York Fashion Week in February. Rodriguez was sentenced to 60 days in jail for violating probation after a drunken driving arrest in Hawaii. She was released from the Century Regional Detention Center, where Hilton was, almost immediately because of overcrowding.

And then there's Martha Stewart. Stewart was convicted in March 2004 on four counts of lying to investigators and obstructing justice after selling her shares in the pharmaceutical company ImClone days before its application for a new drug was denied. She served five months before she was placed under supervised release and required to wear an ankle bracelet for an additional five months.

When one reporter asked if Hilton had been cut a break, Whitmore said, "It's a fair statement, and I don't know if there's any way to address that. … [We're] fully aware of this criticism and this action was taken."