Nicole Richie thought she’d spend the full four days of her jail sentence behind bars when she surrendered herself to authorities on Thursday.

Nicole thought she’d follow in her friend Paris Hilton’s footsteps and be kept at Century Regional Detention Facility at Lynwood, California for her 96-hours sentence but due to overcrowding at the prison, she was released just 82 minutes later, after spending just 23 minutes in a cell.

Her lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley said on Friday: “Nicole was aware that most people with sentences similar to hers are booked and released in a matter of hours and she was hoping to be treated like everyone else,” attorney Shawn Chapman Holley said in a statement. “Nevertheless, she was prepared to serve her entire four-day sentence had the Sheriff’s Department required her to do so.”

“Of course, she was pleasantly surprised to be released so quickly,”

Nicole, who is currently five months pregnant with her first baby, received the jail time following her arrest for DUI last December. In a plea bargain deal agreed last month, she will remain on probation for the next three years, was fined $2,048 and must attend an alcohol education programme.

Spokespeople for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department insist that Nicole’s early release is “standard procedure for nonviolent offenders”.