Our long national nightmare has come to an end: Paris Hilton is once again a free woman.
Prisoner 9818783 was released from the Century Regional Detention Facility at 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, after serving 23 days of a 45-day sentence for violating probation on an alcohol-related reckless-driving charge.
Hilton walked out through the front door of the jail just moments after she became eligible for release, her curtailed stay owing to a California statute that allows time off for good behavior.
Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said that before emerging from the detention center, Hilton ducked into a bathroom and ditched her standard-issue orange jumpsuit for dark jeans, white T-shirt and an olive jacket.
She smiled and waved to scores of press, paparazzi and fans, pausing briefly to shake some hands and say "hi" before running to a waiting black Escalade to embrace parents Rick and Kathy Hilton. The reunion was cut short when camera crews engulfed the SUV, forcing the Hiltons to beat a hasty retreat.
Helicopters and automobiles tracked the caravan across Los Angeles freeways and surface streets to her grandparents' sprawling compound in Beverly Hills' Benedict Canyon—doubtless a relief to Hilton's Hollywood Hills neighbors, who have been grousing about the media crush ever since her initial release. (Officials responded by establishing temporary no-parking zones and limiting air traffic around her home.) (Watch Hilton's arrival to the family home.)
The early-morning departure brings to a close one of the most heavily scrutinized jail terms in recent Los Angeles history.
"She has fulfilled her obligation. It's now completed," Whitmore said. "She was obviously in good spirits."
Hilton will complete her probation in March 2009, provided she keep her driver's license current and refrain from once again falling on the wrong side of the law. According to the Los Angeles City Attorney's office, she could reduce her probation by up to 12 months if she opts to complete community service that could include her filming a public service announcement.
The 26-year-old hotel heiress voluntarily surrendered June 3, just hours after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards and was booked into the special-needs unit of the Lynwood facility without incident. Initial reports indicated that, with the exception of being cold and not enjoying the chow, she was doing well, filling her 23 hours of daily solitary time reading and performing Pilates. (Although Hilton reportedly lost upwards of 10 pounds, she did not appear gaunt as she made her way out of the facility.)
But then she began receiving hours-long visits from her psychiatrist, Dr. Charles Sophy. After serving just three full days of her sentence, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca touched off a firestorm when he approved her "reassignment" to house arrest, citing unspecified "severe medical problems" as the reason.
Prosecutors cried foul, politicians and activists blasted Baca for playing favorites and Judge Michael T. Sauer ultimately reversed the sheriff's decision. Hilton was taken in handcuffs from her Hollywood Hills home and brought back to court, trailed all the way by a frenzy of news helicopters and paparazzi. Less than 24 hours after her release, she was sent back to jail.
The second time around, however, the Simple Life star was taken to L.A.'s Twin Towers jail and housed in the center's medical ward under around-the-clock supervision. In a phone call to E! News' Ryan Seacrest Thursday, Hilton said she was not only suffering from claustrophobia when she was initially incarcerated, as first reported by E! Online, but that she was also "going a little bit crazy." (Read excerpts from the exclusive conversation.)
After a week of medical and psychiatric testing, Hilton was deemed fit enough to be transferred back to where it all began, her 12-by-8-foot cell at Century Regional, where she continued to be monitored up until her release.
As for her immediate plans, Hilton told Seacrest she was most looking forward to the simple pleasures in life—notably "a good meal" and "a hug" from her family.
"I feel like I can't wait to start a new chapter of my life," she said. "I just can't wait to see my family and have a nice meal and be in my own bed and appreciate all the things I took for granted and never really thought much about."
She also said she planned on distancing herself from the "bad people" she had been surrounded by and would dedicate herself to aiding others, particularly those she grew to know behind bars.
"I want to help build a transitional home so that when inmates leave here, they don't have to go back to the street," she said. "These women just keep coming back because they have no place to go...if we stop it now, we can make our community a better place."
Hilton will no doubt dish more on her newfound altruism Wednesday night, when she's set to sit down with Larry King for her first postjail interview.
GET MORE PARIS:
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