**FILE**Paris Hilton sits in the audience during the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles, Sunday, June 3, 2007. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com, quoting sources it didn't name, said Hilton left the jail early Thursday morning, June 7, 2007. Just after the awards show, Hilton checked into the Century Regional Detention Facility in Los Angeles to begin serving a more than three-week sentence for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - After only three days behind bars, Paris Hilton traded a 12-by-8-foot cell for her 2,700-square-foot Hollywood Hills home on Thursday when she was released because of an unspecified medical condition.
Hilton will be under home confinement, wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, for the remaining 40 days of her sentence for violating probation in a reckless driving case.
The celebrity inmate was sent home from the L.A. County jail's Lynwood lockup shortly after 2 a.m., a stunning reduction to a sentence that already had been cut from 45 to 23 days because of "good behavior." Another two days were lopped off the original 45 since she checked in late Sunday and left early Thursday, earning credit for five days served.
No details were available on the nature of Hilton's medical condition. Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore refused to answer questions about whether it was physical or psychological.
"I can't specifically talk about the medical situation other than to say that yes, it played a part in this," Whitmore said at an early morning news conference outside the jail.
Hilton's lawyer and publicist did not return calls seeking comment.
On Sunday night, after a surprise red-carpet appearance at the MTV Movie Awards, Hilton surrendered to authorities with little fanfare.
"I am trying to be strong right now," she told reporters at the time. "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."
Hilton was 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 didn't have a cellmate.
Like other inmates in the special-needs area, Hilton took meals in her cell and was allowed outside for at least an hour each day to shower, watch TV in the day room, participate in outdoor recreation or talk on the telephone.
When Hilton was sentenced May 4, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer ruled she would not be allowed any work release, furloughs or use of an alternative jail or electronic monitoring in lieu of jail.
Whitmore said Thursday that Sauer "was consulted and he was advised" about her early release.
Hilton's path to jail began when she was arrested Hilton in Hollywood on Sept. 7. She pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to 36 months' probation, alcohol education and $1,500 in fines.
On Jan. 15 she was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol. Informed that her license was suspended, Hilton signed a document acknowledging she was not to drive. Then, on Feb. 27, she was pulled over a third time, which led to her brief incarceration.
Her new lockup is a four-bedroom, three-bathroom, Spanish-style home on .14 acres above the Sunset Strip.
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