Opinion: Reader opinion: How Lindsay Lohan would fare in court if you were in charge

Common sense suggests that Lohan is being treated generously. Despite infraction after infraction and threat after threat, in her visit to jail last summer she served a mere 13 days of a 90-day sentence. But common sense doesn’t always tell the whole story. The reality is that in L.A. County’s overcrowded jail system, nonviolent offenders often have their sentences drastically reduced. And it’s hard to tell what’s the ‘usual’ punishment for repeat infractions like Lohan’s because judges and prosecutors have so much leeway that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.Two things would help. First, we’d like assurances, and evidence if possible, that officials involved in the Lohan case are doing everything they can to treat her the same way they’d treat anyone else in the system — neither more harshly nor more leniently. And second, we’d like to feel confident that if people misbehave time and again, eventually they will be punished for it.

I suppose the misadventures of Lindsay Lohan will continue to seem droll and harmless right up to the point where she drives drunk and slams her car into the side of a minivan, killing everybody inside. I don’t give a signed copy of ‘It Takes a Village’ about her personal life, but what this dingbat does when she gets behind the wheel of a car affects us all. If she gets caught behind the wheel one more time with so much as powdered sugar on her nose, throw the goddamn book at her. She’s has too many second chances. Most of us are lucky to get just one. -- GregMaragos

I am willing to pay the tax dollars so that her orange-colored waste of existence can be behind bars and not in front of the cameras wasting society’s time and sympathies. -- swiftmaco

She’s ‘acting out’. IMHO jail is less called for in her (and others like her) case than psychotherapy, probably including medication. -- John Arthur

Another Paris Hilton. Doesn’t this gal realize how privileged she is? There are people in this world starving, living in refugee camps and worse -- and she could have been one of them. Instead of running around being a self-centered self-indulgent fool, she could put her money and celebrity to some good use. […] -- irishchannel1

[ L]indsay is a working actress/model/singer. She’s not a bum. It wouldn’t make sense to throw her in jail while she’s paying taxes. In this case, I think Fashion Law (an adjunct of entertainment law) applies: models traditionally wear clothes and jewelry that don’t belong to them. Let it slide, give her a break. -- mike.peters2135