When an accused violates probation many times and a judge finally has had enough and imposes a 30 days jail sentence, how much time does the law require a person to do?

The answer under California law is 15 days of actual time, or 50% of the sentence imposed.

So how does Lindsay Lohan check into the Los Angeles County Jail and check out a few hours later with her 30 days jail sentence completed?

The Los Angeles County Jail system is severely impacted due to an overflow of persons serving time.

While it is not uncommon for a prisoner to be released after such a short period of time in LA county, for Lohan to be released after a few hours, after a tremendous amount of publicity, sends a dangerous message to others who will not be so lucky.

In every county in Southern California, other than Los Angeles County, if you are sentenced to jail time you will do 50% of the sentence imposed by the court. In some cases in Los Angeles, depending upon the “inmate count” and “other factors” you may be released early.

So if you commit a crime outside of LA county and are not often featured on TMZ or other similar “celebrity television programs” don’t expect to be as lucky as Lindsay Lohan.

The real question is what will the judge have to do if Ms. Lohan once again violates her probation.

According to the judge, if she doesn’t explicitly follow the new terms of her probation, Lohan will be sentenced to 270 days, and will have to serve a minimum of 20% of that sentence, or 54 days in jail.