The Paris jail saga continues … and raises equal justice concerns

As this AP article details, only a matter of hours “after Paris Hilton was sent home under house arrest Thursday, the judge who put her in jail for violating her reckless-driving probation ordered her into court to determine whether she should be put back behind bars.”

I’m not sure I have enough energy or interest to come up with any thoughtful commentary on this latest development in the Paris debacle.  Fortunately, Laura Appleman at PrawfsBlawg and Jeralyn at TalkLeft have smart things to say about all the Hilton brouhaha.

UPDATE:  Hilton’s early release seems to be the top story on all the morning talk shows, and the focus is justifiably turning to whether any other jail inmate could have be reassigned to home confinement based on the “medical conditions” cited as the reason for Hilton’s release.  (My favorite sound-bite: “Paris is going from the big house to the really big house.”). 

Here is the start of a telling commentary from John Gibson at Fox News, entitled “Al Sharpton is Right about Paris Hilton”:

Today when Paris Hilton got sprung from jail 20 days early — from a sentence that was just half of what was originally imposed — the story turned out to be that Paris’ shrink went to the jailers and said she was about to have a nervous breakdown.  So they let her go home early with an ankle bracelet.  Sharpton immediately said there may have been racism involved here.

Look, when he’s right he’s right.  No matter what you think of Rev. Al, it is hard to imagine that anywhere in America a black woman is getting out of jail today because her shrink says she’s about to have a nervous breakdown.  He says it wouldn’t happen, and I agree.

It shouldn’t happen either.  It shouldn’t happen with “little miss just anybody,” whether she’s African-American or white or Asian or Hispanic or anything. And it shouldn’t have happened with Paris Hilton.