Officials cross fingers for Lindsay Lohan's jail stint

Lindsay Lohan is due to surrender today to a Beverly Hills, Calif., judge to begin her 90-day sentence in a Lynwood jail, but it remains unclear exactly how much time the actress will spend behind bars.

The L.A. Sheriff's Department has not said exactly how long they plan to incarcerate Lohan, but authorities have said it could amount to only 25 percent of her sentence. Some speculate it could be even less, given jail overcrowding and the relatively minor nature of Lohan's probation violation on a drunken driving arrest.

The situation puts the sheriff's department in a tough position, coming three years after Paris Hilton's early release from jail created national headlines and ultimately resulted in the hotel heiress being sent back to finish her sentence.

"The sheriff and his department know they are going to be under the microscope. They know they are going to be vilified if people perceive she's getting out early or is getting special treatment," said Dmitry Gorin, a former prosecutor.

Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's spokesman, said it's too early to know exactly how long Lohan will spend behind bars.

While the Sheriff's Department has guidelines about how much time nonviolent female inmates should serve, it's possible that the judge's order will mandate a certain amount of time.

"We won't know until the judge remands her into our custody and we see the judge's written order," he said. "That order could dictate what the Sheriff's Department can do with Lohan. It could say no alternatives. No work release or involuntary electronic monitoring."

Jail overcrowding isn't as severe now as it was when Hilton was sent to jail in June 2007. From 2002 to 2006, more than 150,000 inmates walked free after serving a fraction of their sentences, many of them less than 10 percent.

A 2006 Los Angeles Times investigation found that nearly 16,000 inmates released early were rearrested while they were supposed to be in jail. Sixteen were charged with murder. The housing boom of the mid- to late-2000s helped fill the county's coffers with property tax revenue, allowing the sheriff's department to increase the length of jail stays for men to 80 percent of their jail time.

But in March, Sheriff Lee Baca announced that a new round of budget cuts gave him little choice but to step up early releases. During the fluctuations in early releases, the Lynwood-based jail that Lohan is expected to enter is one where jail managers have struggled to keep women behind bars for longer.

Today, female inmates who are sentenced for low-level offenses and who do not have serious criminal histories generally serve 25 percent of their time.