Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has been ordered back to court to determine whether she should go back to jail after she was released Thursday and reassigned to house arrest.

"The [Los Angeles] city attorney filed a petition for an order to show cause why the sheriff should not be held in contempt for releasing Ms. Hilton, and demanded that she be held in custody," Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said late Thursday afternoon.

Paris Hilton appeared at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, before turning herself in to authorities later that night.
(Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press)

After less than a week in jail, Hilton was released for unspecified medical reasons and reassigned to house arrest for the next 40 days.

Hilton must now report to court at 9 a.m. PT Friday.

Earlier Thursday, Hilton issued a statement thanking authorities for "treating [her] fairly and professionally.

"I have learned a great deal from this ordeal and hope that others have learned from my mistakes," she said.

The reassignment trades Hilton's stay in a 12-by-eight-foot cell for her 2,700-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom Hollywood Hills home.

The decision has largely drawn criticism and accusations of preferential treatment for the "celebutante," with members of the public, legal experts, police officials, talk show hosts and even civil rights leader Al Sharpton weighing in. 

"On any given day, a thousand female inmates are in custody," Steve Remige, president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, told Reuters. "Why is one case, out of the blue, treated any different than them?"

Though he said he felt empathy for Hilton, Sharpton denounced the home confinement as giving "all of the appearances of economic and racial favouritism that is constantly cited by poor people and people of colour."

Decision made after 'extensive consultation'

After "extensive consultation with medical personnel," authorities decided to reassign Hilton "to our community-based alternatives to custody program," Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, told reporters on Thursday morning.

Shortly after 2 a.m. local time Thursday, the Simple Life reality TV star was released from an L.A. County jail and fitted with an electronic "ankle bracelet" monitoring device, he said.

The tabloid favourite and notorious party girl will be confined to her home for the next 40 days and will be under the supervision of the Los Angeles County probation department.

Whitmore cited an unspecified medical condition for Hilton's reassignment, saying privacy issues prevented him from going into greater detail.

"This is certainly not unprecedented. This happens from time to time," he said. "It doesn't matter how we look … it just matters that we do our job."

He added that Hilton's reassignment was not an issue of overcrowding in the facility.

Earlier this year, Hilton, 26,was sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving with a suspended licence, which violated the probation of her alcohol-related reckless driving case from late 2006. The sentence was later reduced to 23 days.

Simple Life co-star also in hot water

On Sunday night, Hilton surrendered to police and was booked into the Century Regional Detention Facility, not long after making a surprise appearance at the MTV Movie Awards earlier that day.

She was held in a special-needs area in the facility, where she was separated from the general prison population and spent 23 hours each day in her cell.  

Authorities consider that Hilton has already spent five days "behind bars," Whitmore said. 

Hilton's Simple Life co-star, Nicole Richie, who was also charged with driving under the influence in a separate incident last December, said she is worried she too could land in jail.

During an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, Richie said she would learn her fate in the case "probably at the end of this month.

"I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and, you know, of course, I'm scared also, but, you know, I'm willing to face whatever consequences come my way and I take responsibility for what I've done," Richie, the daughter of pop singer Lionel Richie, told Letterman.

With files from the Associated Press