Paris Hilton gets a “Room of Her Own”

First the judge sentences her to 45 days. Then the 45 days is reduced to 20 something. Then the sheriff releases her due to an unnamed medical problem to serve the rest of the 45 days in in-home confinement. Then the Al Sharpton’s and others start complaining about favoritism and racismm and the judge, visibly and verbally annoyed at the sheriff, orders her back to jail. She is led in tears and hysterics from the courtroom calling for her Mommy. This time she’s sent to a maximum security prison where she supposedly can get treatment for her still unspecified medical condition.

What bothers me about all this, aside from the unrelenting media attention and insatiable appetite we Americans have for this non-news “news”, is the revealing look at the state of our justice system. I have no problem with the judge sending Paris Hilton to jail for her disregard of the laws. She is a hazard to herself and more, to any innocent person who happens to be in her path when she puts herself behind a wheel while intoxicated. She is in dire need of a life-changing experience. This jail experience could have been (and hopefully still may be) what she needs to wake up from whatever stupor she’s in and get her life on track.

It’s the power struggle between the judge’s ego and the sheriff’s ego that I find most troubling about the whole situation. If the justice system can ping-pong someone like Paris Hilton, with her expensive lawyers and cameras rolling non-stop, I can only imagine what the justice system has in store for the poor and not famous with no one to look out for them. Who has the authority to release someone early? If the sheriff has the authority, then why can the judge overrule and haul her back. Is there no clear cut line of authority? Are the authorities who have so many people in subjection to them by court order just winging it when it comes to who does what and when? Am I the only one bothered by this?