LYNWOOD — Actress Lindsay Lohan began serving a 90-day sentence for violating her probation in a pair of DUI cases Tuesday.

After a brief morning hearing at the Beverly Hills courthouse, Lohan was handcuffed and transported to the Century Regional Detention Center here where she will serve her sentence.

During Tuesday’s court hearing, Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel ordered that Lohan not be permitted to serve any part of her sentence on home detention or with electronic monitoring.

Revel also ordered that Lohan report to a 90-day inpatient substance- abuse program within 24 hours of being released from jail. The judge had previously ordered that she report to such a facility within two days of her release, but said Tuesday she wanted to ensure a quick transition to the program.

Revel ruled July 6 that Lohan had violated her probation by missing multiple classes at a court-ordered alcohol-education program.

Although Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail, she is not expected to serve anywhere near that amount of time. Nonviolent female inmates generally serve about 25 percent of their sentence, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said after the July 6 hearing.

Lohan could also receive good-time credit and have her sentence further reduced under the sheriff’s early release program aimed at easing jail overcrowding, Whitmore said.

On Tuesday, Whitmore said sheriff’s officials were reviewing the “remand order” and might be able to provide a projected release date later.

Lohan will serve her time in the same facility where Paris Hilton served 23 days for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case in 2007. She is expected to be held primarily in isolation, away from the general jail
population, in a 12-foot-by-8-foot cell.

“People that have this kind of notoriety ... they are kept away from the general population,” Whitmore said. “We call that a keep-away.”

After Lohan was brought to the jail, Whitmore said the actress “has been extremely cooperative and everything is going smoothly.”

He said Lohan went through a “triage” process, including a medical and psychological screening that is “routine with any inmate that comes into our custody.”

Outside court in Beverly Hills, Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers called the 90-day term “an appropriate sentence in this case.”

“This is not the typical case that I handle,” she said.

Meyers said Lohan’s case was unusual because of the length of time it’s taken to resolve — about three years — and the intense news coverage.

She hinted that she thought the attention paid to Lohan’s case was over the top.
“In fact, we’re going to sentence a guy to death on Friday, and I don’t expect to see any of you there,'' she said.

Lohan’s attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, said Lohan “has complied with the judge’s order” and “she asks for your prayers and support.”

Holley said Lohan is “scared as anyone would be ... and she’s resolute. She does her time just like anyone else.”

The entrance to the Beverly Hills Courthouse was lined with scores of photographers and reporters. Among the crowd were people wearing T-shirts that read: “Free Lindsay,” “Let Her Go” and “Linnocent.”

Lohan arrived in a black sport utility vehicle, seven minutes late, with her mother and sister in tow. She was wearing an open-back top, black jacket and jeans.

Her journey from home to the courthouse was chronicled by media helicopters, with photographers camped out by her driveway. After the court hearing, Lohan was loaded into a Sheriff’s Department vehicle and driven to the Lynwood jail, followed by paparazzi in vehicles and on motorcycles — some of them running on foot to the sheriff's car when it was stopped at intersections in hopes of snapping photos of Lohan.

Media helicopters also followed her journey to the jail.

During her July 6 hearing, Lohan tearfully told Revel she believed she was complying with all the terms of her probation.

Lohan said she missed classes because she was working, but she thought she was allowed to make them up by attending more than one session in a single week.

On May 26, 2007, Lohan was in a Mercedes-Benz that crashed into a hedge along Sunset Boulevard near the Beverly Hills Hotel, and two months later was arrested in Santa Monica on suspicion of driving under the influence.

That August, Lohan pleaded no contest to two counts each of drunken driving and being under the influence of cocaine, and one count of reckless driving. She was sentenced to one day in jail — but spent a total of 84 minutes at the Century Regional Detention Facility — and was placed on three years probation.

Lohan’s probation was later extended for a year after she missed some alcohol-education classes while making a movie in Texas.

Lohan ran afoul of the judge again when she missed a scheduled court hearing in May because she was at the Cannes Film Festival in France. She said her passport had been stolen.

Tuesday’s hearing was preceded by more drama swirling around who may be representing the 24-year-old actress.

Former O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Shapiro confirmed last week that he had agreed to represent her, provided that she adhered to all the conditions of her sentencing, including the jail term. But Revel said Shapiro came to her office late Monday to say he would not be handling the case.