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Should Nicole Richie do jail time for her second DUI conviction?

Results so far:

No		14%	83 votes	Total: 602 votes
Yes		86%	519 votes	Total: 602 votes

No

1 of 6

Most of us, living our mundane, middle to low class existences grab our weekly tabloids and get our fill of which Hollywood "bad girl" is off to rehab or the bighouse next. Our twisted fascination with the life and times of people who are famous for either mediocre talent or no talent whatsoever keeps us riveted to our Star and US Weekly. It also invites our inevitable opinion to be heard when one of these women and men get into a spot of trouble.

Nicole Richie...please step up. But why? Why is it that the Nancy Grace's of the world have this poor, almost 2 dimensionally thin young lady pegged as a jailbird? We have automatically declared her guilty when her hearing/trial has not even taken place. Has anyone bothered to ask Ms. Richie what happened? Granted she admitted to being on prescription drugs and pot when the cops pulled her over going the wrong way up the freeway but that could have happened to anyone. And how do we know she wasn't method acting in the attempts to get herself a role on a Lifetime movie?

Besides, who thinks jail will do anything but cement her bone protruding image into our televisions 24/7? "Trusted" news-makers will run it as front page news. We'll see her on the same clips for the entire time a trial and potential jail run will last. Then she'll find God, that is if he's not too busy with Paris clubbing it on the strip? We'll of course have the obligatory interview post-incarceration, the photos and paparazzo's clamoring to see how she looks. Like Paris, she could create her own line of clothing whilst in the pen and upon her release show them off for all the cameras present.

Putting it simply...jail has lost it's edge. Sitting in a private room, doing telephone interviews with Barbara Walters and "reading" the Bible (still trying to figure out a favorite passage and more importantly figure out what a passage is) doesn't have the same kick as, let's say, general population. Weigh it out. Not having a mirror...using a mirror as a shiv in the shower? Sitting in an 8x8 room by yourself...sitting in an 8x8 room with a 300lbs angry, sexually agressive, undereducated woman? If you want to put the fear of god into these blasphemous Hollywood Gen-Yers, throw them in with 30 to lifers. See if they'll have time to text Barbara when their new girlfriend (and I mean girlfriend) has them collecting cigarettes from the other inmates.

Then again, we have a better chance at seeing Jesus return to Earth than Nicole and her bunch do real time. So just say "no" to jail. For Nicole or any of them. You want to punish them? Make them wear clothes from WalMart, eat 3 meals a day without vomiting, take away their credit cards, and don't let them wear any makeup. We have to make sure their pictures are taken constantly as this happens so images of them as "one of us" may be beamed across the globe. Jail is old news. As dated as jelly bracelets and mini-dogs as pets. Since we aren't willing to give them punishments most of us would receive, creativity is the key to their rehabilitation. Keep Nicole out of jail!

Learn more about this author, Jimmy Ettele.
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Yes

1 of 62

by Elizabeth M. Young

While 11,773 people were killed in drunk driving incidents in 2008, many more were permanently injured and died later from their DUI related injuries. Of course, we want to see drunk drivers take on the most serious punishment for the first offense, let alone a second offense. But Mel Gibson's DUI from 2006, for example, has been expunged. He completed his sentencing to three years of probation and has had no other incidents, and under California law, he was allowed to clear his record in October 2009.

Nicole Richie had a DUI conviction in 2003, actually confessing to using Vicodan and marijuana. She could have been sentenced to 90 days to a year, but was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation. For her second offense, committed while under probation, she was sentenced to four days in jail. So was Paris Hilton, who violated her probation and acted as if she were Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine.

Yes, it is shocking to hear rumors that one celebrity or another seems to have been given special preference, but the fact is that many non celebrity citizen drunk and otherwise impaired drivers who have legal representation get the same light sentencing on first and even second offenses. There are conditions that are considered: whether it is a first offense or second offense, whether the person is a habitual criminal in other matters, whether there was bodily harm or death involved, and whether a person is over or under 21. Amazingly, few people do much jail time and none are supervised by a probation officer, even on the second offense.

One reason is that the jails are crowded with worse offenders and there is no room for intoxicated drivers and non violent offenders. Another reason for outrage is that the conditions of probation in California are not even as strict as people would like: There is no probation officer assigned, jail CAN be from 48 hours to six months on the first offense, and up to a year on the second offense, bodily injury CAN elevate the charge to a felony, licenses are suspended, vehicle interlock devices CAN be ordered, the individual is ordered not to do any alcohol or drugs, there is usually a requirement to attend extensive alcohol treatment or classes, and there are a host of fines and costs.

It is not whether Nicole Richie should go to jail, it is whether the thousands of other DUI offenders across the nation, many with second offenses and chronic alcohol problems, should also go to jail. Just because a person is famous, it is a crime to pump up their sentence for the completely unfair reason that it "would send a message", and such irrational sentencing should be outlawed. The message goes much further when more drunk and drugged drivers, across the nation, receive the message themselves, not from reading that a celebrity had the book thrown at them.

Amazingly, people who are fully aware that their own friends, acquaintances, family members and even themselves have had the same breaks as Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton and Mel Gibson. But the hypocrites do not hesitate to complain loudly when a celebrity is involved. Judges who have to deal with case after case of the horrific consequences of drunk and impaired driving are not inclined to favor anyone, unless they are corrupt, and most judges are not corrupt.

In summary, Nicole Richie should get the same punishment as anyone else who has a second conviction for DUI. The problem is that "everyone else" should get far more punishment and should be under far more restrictions and supervision, because they can't contol their drug use and drinking on their own. They should also have to pay for that restriction and supervision, even if they have to work it off.

http://www.dui.com/d ui-library/celebriti es/mel-gibsion-dui/m el-gibson2019s-calif ornia-dui-expunged

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Learn more about this author, Elizabeth M. Young.
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