I have absolutely no sympathy toward Paris, but it's kind of interesting -- I proofread court transcripts and a lot of times, especially in plea bargains for non-dangerous criminals, people are sentenced to the L.A. County Jail with the tacit understanding that they're not actually going to serve the time, or just a couple of days, because the sheriff is not making people serve their sentences due to overcrowding.

So in some ways, it seems like she actually received unusual punishment serving part of a week, when someone who's not a celebrity might do 0-2 days.

This situation that is particular to the L.A. County Jail may not be widely known, so just passing on the info for whatever interest it might have.

Best wishes,
Laura
 

That's interesting. Why not state a sentence that's actually what's meant to be done? And given the enormous publicity of this case (ridiculous though it is), that would seem especially important here.

L.A.'s police department is a little, uh, er, unusual, isn't it??
 

Just FYI, to be technically correct, the County Jail is run by the L.A. County Sheriff (Lee Baca), which is a separate agency from the LAPD...

It's been a big political thing here for eons that they need more space (and claim they need more funding) to run the county jail. There have been court orders to end "overcrowding" and it's just one big mess, with many people sentenced by judges but then immediately turned loose by the sheriff (to comply with the overcrowding court orders).

It's kind of sad when I read plea bargains or sentencings and the judge acknowedges that he knows the county jail sentence probably isn't going to be carried out by the sheriff, who seems to have the unilateral ability to controvert the judge's sentence. Although, as I said, sometimes the D.A. or judge gives a county jail sentence *intentionally* in plea bargains, to sweeten the deal and induce the accused to plead guilty. A county jail sentence often doesn't amount to much and may mean nothing at all.

Speaking of giving sentences that are what's meant to be served, even many state prison sentences are actually only going to see half the sentence served, due to "credits" for "good time/work time" that shaves the sentence in half.

It's a very messy system...

Best wishes,
Laura
 

It seems like complete and utter nonsense for a sheriff to be able to essentially overturn a judge's sentence. It's a huge scandal when a judge overrules a jury so how can it be legitimate for a sheriff to overrule a judge?!! And why isn't this being publicized even at all?

Is this another example of journalists not doing their homework? I mean, if you know this then others know it, too. I think I'll bet the sheriff did this intentionally so as to get more awareness for what he sees as his plight.

BTW, isn't it entirely different to be let out early AFTER you've served some time and proven to be behaving well (whatever that means) but altogether another to be let out before you've even served one tenth of the sentence and haven't demonstrated good behavior at all?

And -- one more question -- are you serious that people with three driving violations (not parking tickets) are routinely let off entirely??!!!
 

I do feel that L.A. journalists know about these issues and that the story has not been reported in the proper context. It's absurd for black leaders to be politicizing her release when I'm sure countless blacks have been turned loose after a couple days, too.

Paris's 3 driving violations are small potatoes in the scheme of the criminal justice system, at least for So. CA. Although in my eyes - and I'm sure yours -- someone with that many driving convictions is endangering the public safety, I guess it just doesn't measure up compared to the gang and drug crime that floods the system.

You'd be amazed at how many times some drug sellers have been in and out of jail, for example, with their "third strike" felony (which would ensure they are locked up permanently) routinely "stricken" by the judge so that they can get out.

Here's a story from this week, from a Canadian paper of all things, about the overcrowding in CA jails in general (a federal takeover has been threatened):

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=17d9add3-3ecc-4a7e-8e3a-d39eb6d579aa

Here's another fascinating story:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/los_angeles_metro/la-me-paris11may11,1,964987.story?coll=la-commun-los_angeles_metro

"Until recently, county jailers routinely released anyone sentenced to less than 90 days as quickly as the inmate could be processed in and out of the facilities, under a policy to ease overcrowding and make room for more serious offenders.

But because overcrowding is less acute in the female facilities, women sentenced to 90 days or more of county jail time regularly have been serving a greater percentage of their sentences than men: 25% compared with 10% for men."

The ACLU got involved and said it wasn't fair that the sheriff makes women serve more of their sentences.

I completely agree that you should actually have to prove good behavior, and I guess in the state system you probably do have to, in order to actually get out early, but not in county.

If you Google or Google News Los Angeles County Jail overcrowding all sorts of stories turn up.

Here's one from 5/31:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18969035/

A sheriff's spokesman insisted Paris would not be let out early due to overcrowding -- ha! -- and the article notes that last year another actress served less than one day of a 60-day sentence. I'd guess that's typical.

The bottom line is, I don't think Paris's lack of punishment is at all fair, but I also don't think it's at all unusual...nonetheless we're probably going to see marches and Sharpton in the news and all sorts of "spin" going on about it!

Best wishes,
Laura
 

Sorry to follow up after the long post above (grin), but I just want to underline the point above: it's been routine practice for anyone sentenced to 90 days or less in L.A. Co. Jail to be released upon processing (the 0-2 days I referred to in my first post). If you are sentenced to more than 90 days, you might serve 10-25% of the actual sentence.

So let's say you're a male sentenced to 100 days, you'd do 10 days. Which is way less than Paris's original sentence or even her cut-down 23-day sentence. And I suspect that a majority of the people turned loose are simply turned loose, period, but they gave Paris an ankle bracelet to try to reduce the inevitable criticism of her release.

I think "It's a crime" applies to the way the jail system is run!

TTYS!
Laura
 

This is absolutely amazing. I feel as if we should publish our exchange so people can understand what's really going on. If I didn't have you informing me, I'd be as crazed as the others about her special treatment. I mean, it IS special treatment but the problem evidently is with the jail and the way that's run MUCH more than with the sentencing.

Now I'm going to be curious to see if anyone publicizes what the real point is. If not, I'm going to get the NYT to call you!! (As if I have any influence on them.)