Paris Hilton heads for real "simple life" in jail

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hotel heiress Paris Hilton, star of the reality TV show "The Simple Life," will really be going back to basics when she checks into a Los Angeles County jail next month to do time for violating her probation.

The 26-year-old socialite, a symbol of privilege and the excesses of America's celebrity culture, was ordered last week to report on June 5 to the Century Regional Detention Facility south of downtown Los Angeles, to serve a 45-day sentence for driving while her license was suspended.

Hilton was visibly shocked and tearful when a judge imposed the sentence, later calling it "cruel and unwarranted."

Unless her lawyers win an appeal, she will forsake her designer clothes, cell phone and other accouterments -- along with her freedom and privacy -- for an orange jumpsuit and a small, spartan cell with twin bunks.

"She's going to be assigned a two-person cell, and most likely have another inmate in the cell with her," Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said on Monday, adding Hilton, like all inmates, would be confined to her quarters 23 hours a day.

She will be allowed out of her cell once a day for an hour to shower, stretch her legs, use the telephone or watch television in a jailhouse day room, he said.

The cell -- 8 feet wide by 12 feet deep, with an 8-foot (2.4 meter) ceiling -- contains "two bunks, a table, a sink, a toilet and a sliver of a window." Hilton's cellmate, if she gets one, will be another individual serving time for a serious driving infraction or other nonviolent offense, he said.

While the facility houses roughly 2,200 women, Hilton will be segregated from the general population in a "special-needs" unit designed for such high-profile prisoners as celebrities, former police officers and public officials, Whitmore said.