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Inmates angry about Paris’ special treatment

Parents didn’t have to wait to see her, unlike relatives of other inmates

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updated 10:36 p.m. ET June 12, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The parents of Paris Hilton didn’t have to wait long to visit their daughter Tuesday, raising more questions of whether the hotel heiress was receiving special treatment.

The Hiltons breezed past some waiting in line for hours to see loved ones.

After her visit, Kathy Hilton said her daughter wants “just to do her time and get on.” She added her daughter has not had much sleep.

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The visit angered some others who were waiting to see inmates. Shatani Alverson, 23, said she was hustled out of the visiting room at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility moments after her husband walked in because of the Hiltons. She was told to come back after lunch.

Alvina Floyd waited more than four hours to visit her fiance. It normally takes two, and Floyd, 20, blamed the Hiltons for the delay.

“I have to be at work later,” she said. “I can’t wait here all day.”

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Steve Whitmore, a sheriff’s spokesman, deflected criticism about the Hiltons’ visit. He said it was routine for high-profile inmates to receive visitors during lunch, a time when the visiting room is normally cleared out and closed.

The visit came shortly after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered Sheriff Lee Baca to respond by next week to allegations of favoritism for reassigning Hilton to house arrest after she was sent to jail for violating probation. At the time, Baca cited an undisclosed medical condition as the reason for making the decision.

The 26-year-old celebrity was later ordered back to jail. She was sent to a medical ward, where sheriff’s officials said it costs $1,109.78 a day to house a female inmate compared to $99.64 a day in the general population.

County Supervisor Don Knabe said he and his colleagues had received many angry e-mails from people who believed Baca was treating the heiress better than other sick and mentally ill inmates.

Mary Tiedeman, who regularly visits the jails as a monitor for the ACLU, said the area where Hilton was being housed was usually reserved for high-security inmates or those worse off than Hilton has appeared.

“I don’t know what her health issue is, but you have got to have a pretty intense medical or mental health problem to be in that part of the jail,” she said.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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