Will she stay or will she go?

Hours after Paris Hilton was sprung from jail and placed under house arrest for an unspecified "medical condition," the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office wants to send her back.

Prosecutors filed court papers Thursday evening with the judge who originally sentenced the heiress to 45 days in jail requesting that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department return her to custody and that the department show cause as to why it shouldn't be held in contempt of court for letting her go, or "reassigning" her, in the first place. (Read the order here.)

In response, the Sheriff's Department was ordered to bring Hilton to court Friday at 9 a.m. for a hearing on the matter. However, after doctors were seen entering Hilton's home later Thursday, a court spokesman announced that Hilton would instead be testifying by phone.

Then, early Friday, an obviously peeved Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Sauer reversed that, ordering the Sheriff's Department to go and pick up Hilton and bring her to the hearing. 

With the approval of Sheriff Lee Baca, Hilton was released from the Century Regional Detention Facility shortly after midnight, fitted with a monitoring ankle bracelet and ordered confined to  her 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills home for the next 40 days.

While she's still technically being punished, the move caused an immediate outcry by everyone from The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck to L.A. city and county officials who perceived the sheriff's actions as an affront to the justice system, especially since Judge Sauer had specifically ordered that the Simple Life star not be given alternative custody or electronic monitoring.

City attorney spokesman Nick Velasquez said earlier Thursday that the office had been "inundated with calls and emails form people," with "100 percent of them" angry about Hilton's release.

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said today that he was "extremely troubled" by the sheriff's decision and had asked his prosecutors to "immediately explore all possible legal options to ensure that the law is being applied equally and justly in this case."

"Los Angeles County Jail medical facilities are well-equipped to deal with medical situations involving inmates," he added.

Meanwhile, sheriff spokesman Steve Whitmore told KNBC-TV that the contempt accusation "appears to be another Rocky Delgadillo press stunt."

"We've examined documents and will respond accordingly in court," he said.

Steve Remige, president of the Association of Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriffs, told KNBC that the system definitely worked in Hilton's favor.

"It appears that in Los Angeles County, if you are a wealthy individual or famous individual, that you are getting preferential treatment in the county jail system, in the county criminal system," Remige said.

To the Los Angeles Times: "I've never heard of a case where an inmate with mental problems has been released. Every jail facility has a medical unit attached to it. If a medical condition arises that those units can't handle, we have a jail ward at County-USC Hospital. I find it hard to believe that the needs of one inmate could not be met by our medical services division."

Although the exact terms of her in-house confinement are unknown—who's allowed to visit, whether she can entertain, etc.—most people are figuring that whatever goes on is going to be a pretty posh alternative to spending the next 19 days in a county lockup.

Hilton was supposed to serve 23 days of her 45-day sentence at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California, for violating her probation for alcohol-related reckless driving by driving several times with a suspended license. 

"This makes a mockery of due process, and you're dealing with a spoiled brat, acting out to get her way instead of serving her time as was adjudicated by the courts," Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich told reporters. "She should pay the consequences for her actions and what's happened—she's now going home to her estate." 

Which, according to a close childhood pal of Hilton's, will be abuzz tonight with friends and family to welcome her home. 

"It's just friends and hanging out and giving her hugs and kisses and stuff like that, so I hope that I can be a part of it, but we'll see," Caroline D'Amore told E! News' Samantha Harris, adding that she had been trying to reach Hilton since Wednesday night but that the socialite's text messaging and voicemail inboxes were full. 

A source told OK! magazine, however, that, in light of Hilton's pending court date, all gatherings are off.

D'Amore also said that she understood why Hilton reportedly had such a hard time of it behind bars, however brief her stay. 

"One of my dearest friends was in jail for 24 hours," she told Harris. "Called me crying hysterically, said it was one of the worst, most vile, disgusting things on the planet…She was a changed person, and she was only there for 24 hours."

Hilton, who was visited twice by her psychiatrist during her short stint in jail, was crying all the time and, unable to sleep, appeared exhausted and unkempt, People magazine reported.

Kathy and Rick Hilton arrive at their daughter's West Hollywood residence today, with Kathy Hilton telling Extra they were "happy to have her home."

In a statement released earlier today, Hilton said: "I am going to serve the remaining 40 days of my sentence. I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes."