The Los Angeles Times analyzed two million prison records and concluded that Paris Hilton "will end up serving more time than 80% of other people in similar situations." I'll give you some material from the story after the jump, but first I think that you should look at what one of Sheriff Baca's toughest critics had to say after being informed of the facts in the case:
One of the most vocal critics, civil rights activist Najee Ali, said Wednesday that Hilton ought to be released if inmates sentenced for similar crimes were serving less time. He continued to criticize Baca's decision to cite medical problems for the release, but added that only dangerous offenders should serve their full sentences given the jail's need to limit overcrowding.
"Clearly, her violation is not as serious, so she should be released," said Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope. "The rules of fairness should be applied equally."
UPDATE: People are commenting without having read the diary. Please take the time to do that before making some howler of an error.
UPDATE cont'd: Everything you "know" about Paris Hilton is wrong. Her whole dumb blond party girl image is all made up -- a "put on" she called into a Newsweek interview two years ago. The party girl thing is a business. She is a minor beneficiary of the Hilton estate, almost all of which is controlled by her grandfather. She parlayed the Hilton name into a major celebrity brand. She makes $2 million a year from her appearances and other deals. She studied acting for three years. She co-authored a New York Times Best Seller. Now she's being punished for her artificially created image, her atavar, just as if she were playing a computer game.
Hilton will do more time than most, analysis finds
By Jack Leonard and Doug Smith
Excerpts
The Times analyzed 2 million jail releases and found 1,500 cases since July 2002 that — like Hilton's — involved defendants who had been arrested for drunk driving and later sentenced to jail after a probation violation or driving without a license.
Had Hilton left jail for good after four days, her stint behind bars would have been similar to those served by 60% of those inmates.
But after a judge sent her back to jail Friday, Hilton's attorney announced that she would serve the full 23 days. That means that Hilton will end up serving more time than 80% of other people in similar situations.
Because of the high media interest, Hilton was one of only a few inmates whose premature release received publicity — and the judge who originally sentenced her noticed. She is believed to be the first inmate in years who actually was sent back to jail to serve more of her term.
Baca's release of Hilton because of undisclosed medical problems touched off a storm of protest. Last year, the department released only three inmates on medical grounds, a spokesman said.
If Hilton does serve the 23 days, she will have done about the same amount of time as 4,000 inmates who since 2002 had been charged with assaults, as well as more than 1,800 charged with burglary, more than 2,600 charged with domestic violence and nearly 11,000 charged with drug violations.
Over the last five years, more than 200,000 inmates have been released early. Baca started the releases during a budget crunch that he said left him no choice but to shut large portions of the nation's largest county correctional system. Though economic times have since improved, a federal court has ordered his department to reduce chronic overcrowding in the jails, hampering efforts to keep inmates longer.
She was railroaded by a publicity-hungry law and order judge. That's what her mother meant when she asked Sauer for his autograph.
The whole thing is a show trial. She's a sex apparatchik (I am not joking) who got too famous. This creepy tough guy judge milked the whole thing for maximum press exposure. The handcuffs were the tip-off. Handcuffs? She's a flight risk? Hardly, but it was great media.
This is the big criminal -- a skinny blond party girl who had her nose fixed and wears blue contact lenses. It's a witch burning. She is the symbol of hedonism and libertinaje (I am using that Spanish word advisedly). Put her in handcuffs, the whorish witch, and publicly humiliate her for acting above her station.
It seems that only the socialists really understand what this is all about The following article on World Socialist Web Site generated the usual hate mail. David Walsh's answer is well worth reading, too. He writes, "Paris Hilton is not guilty of war crimes, or running a sweatshop. Why has she been chosen to be demonized? She is expendable. She can be sacrificed to 'appease' popular discontent without any serious cost to those running America." Exactly.
The campaign to keep Paris Hilton in jail: nothing healthy about it
By David Walsh
Excerpts
The pious outrage Thursday over heiress Paris Hilton's "early release" from jail in Los Angeles, accusations of "special treatment" and the vindictive demands that she receive "justice," i.e., punishment, have nothing healthy or progressive about them—as the images of Hilton being taken in handcuffs to court Friday morning and from there, sobbing, back to prison should indicate.
As conditions have worsened in the US for millions, as social mobility has declined and as real-life opportunities have dried up, the need to live vicariously through celebrities—athletes, supermodels, film stars, etc.—has grown exponentially. Great numbers of Americans pursue imaginary lives through their idols and project their fantasies onto the objects of their fascination.
All of this is played upon by the media for its own cynical purposes, both to sell its products and to divert attention from genuinely pressing issues. The media plays on the public's worship of celebrities and, when the latter stumble, leads the way in "teaching them a lesson" and "cutting them down to size."
To help retard the development of a rational opposition to the current political and social state of affairs, the media cultivates an artificial hostility toward much easier targets. A seething but politically confused population is fed victims, sacrificial lambs, so to speak, while the real criminals go about their business.
The aim, conscious or otherwise, is to make sorting out what is actually taking place in the country more difficult by encouraging a facile and undemanding (and perhaps temporarily cathartic) outrage against a Paris Hilton or some other such figure. The population is intended to feel, falsely, that its cause has been served and blows have been delivered against the rich and powerful, when all that's happened is a young woman guilty of a misdemeanor has gone to jail for a month or more.
We should not be indulging ourselves in hating Paris Hilton. We should be doing our best to make sure that everyone who gets in trouble with the law receives compassionate treatment that will result in rehabilitation. Punishment has been generally substituted for rehabilitation in the California prison system and there has been a correspondent increase in recidivism. That's what the law and order folks accomplished.
I'm not angry that the rich and celebrated get real rehabilitation. I'm glad they get it. I am angry that the others get kicked in the head until they shut up or die. Tell me the name of one major candidate in either party who is addressing these issues. None of them care. I do. And I am really tired of the moralistic, judgmental attitudes of supposedly caring liberals who place their petit bourgeois values ahead of real compassion for those who suffer.
I'm a little annoyed -- if not surprised -- that so many liberals buy into the right wing fallacies amply displayed in the Paris Hilton controversy, but it is merely yet another example of the broad spectrum appeal of fascism.