Simple Life star and famous celebutante Nicole Richie has been booked and released from jail…in under two hours. Richie was assigned to complete four days at the LA County Sheriff’s Department as part of her December 11 DUI arrest. Richie was spotted driving the wrong way on the 134 Freeway, and admitted to arresting officers she had consumed Vicodin and marijuana. Richie was sentenced to four days in jail, three years’ probation, asked to pay a $2,048 fine, and must take alcohol education classes. Nicole reported to the Century Regional Detention Facility at 3:15 pm to check in. She was processed and released at 4:37 pm. Though this quick catch-and-release might sound odd, it’s actually part of standard procedure. The Sheriff’s Department is already under federal order to reduce jail overcrowding, but crime hasn’t slowed down. This leaves the Department will few other options. Thousands of inmates have been released before their full sentences have been completed, not just famous inmates.

These actions, however, have caused more controversy for the Department that’s already in hot water because of the bevy of Paris Hilton headlines that appeared when the heiress arrived to serve her own jail sentence earlier this summer. The Sheriff’s Department maintains that Richie was treated as any other female inmate would have been treated – anyone in her shoes would have been released. I think there’s a lesson in this. If you’re going to commit a crime, do it in LA. They can’t handle it, so they just release people from jail. Hey, whatever works. Officials with the department said non-violent female offenders who are sentenced to 30 days or fewer usually serve less than 12 hours in a jail cell. All of this bodes very, very well for Lindsay Lohan, who has her own mess of legal and substance abuse troubles. In the past five years, more than 200,000 inmates have been released early because of overcrowding. I think I have an answer for this: let’s build more jails.