Lindsay Lohan’s Sentence: What a “Locked” Facility Really Means
Is there any real difference between a locked rehab and regular rehab, besides, you know, lockdown? Are the facilities like the one Lindsay Lohan has been ordered to really locked for a star like her?
—Isaac, via Twitter
Oh yeah. Locked means locked, even for someone privileged as the star of Mean Girls. When Lohan reports to her agreed sentence, which includes 90 days in a no-leave rehab, she won’t be able to get out.
Unless…
Well, OK. Locked rehab isn’t exactly as harsh as jail.
“The death of a family member, or a medical necessity—those would constitute exceptions,” says star criminal defense attorney David Diamond. “And if she reports to certain privately run facilities such as Promises, she wouldn’t be totally locked down.
“You can walk from your suite to pool and from the pool to omelette bar and back to your room.”
What were you expecting, bars on windows? Not at most of these places. Even the ones considered to be “locked down.”
If that offends your reasonable sense of justice, know this: Lohan will likely be responsible for financing her own stay. And unless she chooses a county-run facility (which is pretty close to jail in its amenities) we’re looking at quite a cost.
“The cost varies so much, but I would say that they start at $30,000 per month and go up from there,” says Dr. Damon Raskin, a consultant at the Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center. “If she were going to jail it would be the taxpayer’s paying for it. So, being out of jail will cost her at least $100,000 in rehab fees.”
So. She’ll be paying for people to tell her she can’t leave.
Still annoyed? OK, how about this: Privacy will be hard to come by, even for a star.
“What she can expect is a schedule of intensive psychotherapy, individual therapy and group activities that support healing and reinforce her therapies combined,” Raskin tells me. “She may need a detox, but of this I am not certain, not knowing her medical records. She will be drug tested regularly.”
At least that’s something.
