The sheriff who was criticised for putting Paris Hilton under house arrest has said that he decided to release her from jail to home detention because he feared for her life.
While Sheriff Lee Baca did not say that Hilton was in danger of harming herself, he raised the issue of suicide to explain his decision.
Hilton was jailed for 45 days for violating her probation in a drink-driving case.
After three days in jail Baca, who runs the Los Angeles County jail system, placed Hilton under house arrest, citing unspecified medical problems which he later described as psychological.
The heiress later said she suffered from claustrophobia.
Baca's controversial decision was overturned by a judge and Hilton was sent back to jail. She was released yesterday after serving roughly half of her sentence.
Baca told a hearing of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday: "I think we all in this room know something about suicide. As the sheriff of this county, I'm not going to let any inmate die in our jails."
He continued: "If I know something that can be done that solves the medical problem... What's worth more? Serving time in the county jail for driving on a suspended driver's licence or a person losing their life?"
Explaining his decision to put Hilton under house arrest, Baca said there was confusion over the type of medications and dosage she needed for treatment and that the doctors who prescribed them were unavailable.
"Ultimately, she was at a place where we couldn't fix whatever that medical problem was with the resources we had," he told the board.
Baca also said that Hilton's punishment far exceeded those of other county inmates for similar offences; this has been supported by a Los Angeles Times analysis of 1,500 cases like Hilton's since 2002.
Hilton's publicist declined to comment on the sheriff's remarks; the 26-year-old will give her first post-jail interview to CNN's Larry King tonight.
