Hilton completes first night in LA jail
This video image released Monday June 4, 2007 by TMZ.Com shows hotel heiress Paris Hilton, second left, accompanied by her mother Kathy, left, sitting in the back of an SUV vehicle late Sunday June, 3, 2007 arriving at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles to turn herself in. [AP/TMZ]
LYNWOOD, Calif. - Paris Hilton completed the first night of her probation sentence as morning arrived Monday in her new surroundings -- a Los Angeles County jail cell that will be her home for much of this month.
The 26-year-old hotel heiress worked the red carpet at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday afternoon, then traded her strapless designer gown for a jail-issue jumpsuit and a solitary cell.
Hilton entered the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood just after 11:30 p.m. to serve 23 days for violating her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. She is due out on June 26.
"It's hell. Go to jail and you'll find out," Alicia Singleton, 23, of Oakland, said Monday as she left jail after serving five weeks for a crime she refused to describe.
Singleton said she and other inmates were asleep when Hilton checked in.
Around 7 a.m., they learned Hilton was there when they watched the TV news. To most of them, it was no big deal. "Oh, Paris, Paris, Paris. If you do the crime you've got to do the time," Singleton said.
Hilton surrendered after a surprise visit to the MTV awards.
"I am trying to be strong right now," she told reporters on the red carpet. "I'm ready to face my sentence. Even though this is a really hard time, I have my family, my friends and my fans to support me, and that's really helpful."
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Hilton was easy to work with.
"Her demeanor was helpful. She was focused, she was cooperative," he said.
Hilton, accompanied by her mother, Kathy Hilton, surrendered at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles just after 10:30 p.m. She was then escorted to the women's facility in Lynwood, where she was booked, fingerprinted, photographed, medically screened and issued an orange top and pants, Whitmore said.
Hilton's booking photo shows her wearing what appeared to be a V-neck shirt, eye makeup and lip gloss that highlighted a slight smile. Her blond hair was draped over one shoulder.
Sheriff's deputies had released a mug shot taken last year after Hilton was arrested by Los Angeles police. That photo showed her smiling, in full makeup and with her head tilted to the left, with her blond hair flowing over her bare shoulders.
The mistake was made because the sheriff's department and LAPD mug shots are in the same database, Whitmore said. "It was an inadvertent release."
Hilton, star of the TV reality series "The Simple Life," is being housed in the "special needs" unit of the 13-year-old jail, separate from most of its 2,200 inmates. The unit contains 12 two-person cells reserved for police officers, public officials, celebrities and other high-profile inmates. Hilton's cell has two bunks, a table, a sink, a toilet and a small window. She does not have a cellmate.
Like other inmates in that unit, Hilton will take her meals in her cell and will be allowed outside the 12-by-8-foot space for at least an hour each day to shower, watch TV in the day room, participate in outdoor recreation or talk on the telephone. No cell phones or BlackBerrys are permitted in the facility, even for visitors.
It will be pretty stark for her, but it will be a step up from the general population.
Teresa Jones, 50, of Lancaster, who wasn't clear about what she served time for, called the jail "so filthy it's worse than skid row."
At check-in, jailers hand out a pamphlet on infections, which are common, she said.
"That place is hell, it's awful. Life is easy compared to this," Jones said.
The jail, a two-story concrete building next to train tracks and beneath a bustling freeway, has been an all-female facility since March 2006. It's located in an industrial area about 12 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
When Hilton was sentenced May 4, the judge ruled that she would not be allowed any work release, furloughs or use of an alternative jail or electronic monitoring in lieu of jail.
Hilton's publicist, Elliot Mintz, said he spoke with Kathy Hilton after she returned from the jail.
"She told me it was very emotional," Mintz said. "She also said that she feels this will be a time when Paris will be able to think and reflect and to spend time alone to learn from the experience because in Paris' life she's never alone — there's always a constant chatter around her."
Officers arrested Hilton in Hollywood on Sept. 7. In January, she pleaded no contest to the reckless-driving charge and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.
She was pulled over by California Highway Patrol on Jan. 15. Officers informed Hilton she was driving on a suspended license and she signed a document acknowledging she was not to drive. She then was pulled over by sheriff's deputies on Feb. 27, at which time she was charged with violating her probation.
