According the the Associated Press, former NBA star Charles Barkley began serving a three-day jail sentence today (Sat., Mar. 7) for a drunken- driving charge.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Barkley already had been acting like a “model inmate,” even chatting with others at Tent City, where inmates are housed in tents rather than traditional jail cells.
Barkley has a private tent, but is close enough to other inmates to talk, Arpaio said.
Barkley, a TNT studio analyst, will spend all of Saturday in custody, but will be given work release from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. He will get work release at 8 a.m. Monday and will not have to return to the tents at 8 p.m.
Arpaio said Barkley is not being given special treatment and has a separate tent for his own safety. Meals will be brought to him.
Barkley, 45, pleaded guilty last month to two misdemeanor DUI charges stemming from his Dec. 31 arrest, shortly after leaving a Scottsdale nightclub and failing a field sobriety test. He had a blood-alcohol level of .149 percent, nearly twice the legal limit.
A Scottsdale judge reduced Barkley’s original 10-day sentence to three days after reviewing the case and deciding that seven days should be suspended if Barkley completes an alcohol-treatment program.
The Hall of Fame player also must pay more than $2,000 in fines and install an ignition-interlock device on his vehicles.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
