I don't take pleasure in Paris Hilton being sentenced to prison, but it's an unambiguously positive social development. Like so many others, I instantly wrote off the idea that her crimes -- which have sent many others to jail, and for much longer -- would result in serious punitive measures. Save in particularly grievous instances, the rich just don't go to jail. The courts treat them differently. And on the rare occasions they are sent to jail, they can often pay a room-and-board fee to a smaller, nicer jail -- as if it were a hotel. That's a poisonous truth, and Hilton's punishment, regrettable though it may be, is a slight, and welcome, push in the other direction. The rich may inhabit a whole other economy, but they really shouldn't populate an entirely different legal system.
