It’s a plot so fiendish that Dutch reality television producers will be kicking themselves that they did not think of it first. You take a spoilt heiress and you throw her in prison. After three days, you set her free. A day later, just as she is getting used to life on the outside again, you change your mind and sling her back inside.

Welcome to Paris Does Porridge. This is not reality television, just harsh reality. But it is doing brisk business in the ratings.

By the time you read this there might have been another unexpected twist to the story, but yesterday Paris Hilton, the heiress, was back in the reluctant custody of the Los Angeles county prison service, serving the rest of her 45 days for breaching a probation order.

Her return to prison followed a public outcry on Thursday when she was freed after just three days of her sentence on unspecified health grounds. A mob - no other word for it - gathered outside the court where Judge Michael T Sauer was considering Hilton’s future on Friday. He did not prove sympathetic. “I do not understand why all these people get so much publicity,” he said before sending her back to jail.

Hilton was distraught at the decision. She cried, “It’s not right”, and called out piteously for her mother. She sobbed and shook. But to the crowd of ill-wishers outside, this sort of thing cut no ice at all. As they heard the verdict, a loud cheer went up.

The ugly mood can best be summed up by a contributor to Timesonline, where Hilton’s misfortune has topped the list of most read and most commented on stories. “How dare that spoilt brat get out of jail because she has money,” said Diane of Sac-ramento, speaking for the American nation.

“That young lady needs to be taught respect for the law,” said another. “Put her in the psych ward,” came a suggestion.

Yet among the venom and the fury, there was also one bewildered cry from a lady in Milan: “Why are we paying so much attention to this woman?” Why indeed.

Hilton, now 26, was born into the family that created the Hilton hotel group. She spent her childhood in luxury - including a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. She dropped out of school and signed up with a model agency. But she owes her notoriety to an embarrassing episode on the internet.

A video showing Hilton enjoying a romp with a former boyfriend, Rick Salomon, was leaked and quickly distributed on the internet just before the launch of a reality TV show in which she was to star. That video ensured the popularity of The Simple Life, in which Hilton and Nicole Richie, her best friend, went to work on a farm in Arkansas. The girls’ screaming, ham-fisted attempts at farm work attracted 13m viewers.

Suddenly Hilton became that very modern phenomenon: famous for not doing very much, famous for not being all that bright. By 2004 she had written her autobiography, Confessions of an Heiress. In it she declared: “There is nothing in life worse than being boring.”

Her latest attempt to avoid being boring began last September, when she was arrested by police in Hollywood for drink-driving. She was fined, banned and given probation, and later handed her jail term for breaching the terms of that probation by driving.

Last Sunday she said goodbye to her family and slipped past photographers to surrender herself into custody. She was, she said, ready to be an example to the young.

Some example. Amid reports that she was sobbing in her cell and refusing prison food (Ohmigod, like, way too many calories), Hilton’s lawyers dispatched a hired psychologist, a Beverly Hills child trauma specialist called Charles Sophy. He proved well worth his fee.

Sophy’s report, still confidential, was apparently so terrifying that jailers declared Hilton was too hot to handle. They tagged her and sent her home to complete her sentence.

Lee Baca, the Los Angeles county sheriff, defended his decision to free her. He said his jails, which house many inmates suffering from Aids, eating disorders and schizophrenia, were “not able to respond effectively to [her] problems”.

Hilton was not even a special case, the sheriff insisted. Most prisoners jailed for driving offences serve only 10% of their sentence, so she was in line to be released anyway. Unfortunately, Baca had neglected to clear his medical decision with the judge, who took a different view.

On Friday morning police car No 865 pulled up outside the £5m Hilton family mansion on Kings Road, a narrow winding lane in the Hollywood hills of north Los Angeles. By this time Hilton was distraught. She was handcuffed and handed over to Sauer.

She will spend a few days at a treatment centre at Twin Towers jail in Los Angeles for medical and psychiatric examination to determine where she will be sent next. “This lady has some severe problems,” said Baca, suggesting that those problems were psychological.

“I’m just going to keep her in a better facility for her condition, meaning one that has a more intense form of medical support, and will watch her behaviour so there isn’t anything that is harmfully done to herself by herself.”

By the time the sheriff was explaining himself, it seemed that the public mood had turned slightly. Californians in particular were beginning to feel just a little sorry for their errant daughter.

In an opinion poll for a local newspaper yesterday, just two-thirds of readers thought that Hilton - who reportedly earns $30,000 just to turn out at parties - had got what she deserved. That does not make her Miss Popular, but at least the figure has fallen from the earlier 90%.

Even at the height of the hatred, there were kind words from perhaps an unexpected source. As Hilton was hustled out the back of the courtroom, with tears rolling down her face, make-up smudged and hunched in a grey sweater, a middle-aged female court official touched her on the arm.

“Now it’s time to be strong, honey,” she said quietly.

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