Lindsay Lohan in Court Today, Return to Jail Expected

Lindsay Lohan will stand, once again, before a judge in California and likely be sentenced, once again, to jail time for violating her probation. At this point in the long and sordid legal affairs of LiLo, it seems that everyone would be better off if the California legal system would see fit to allow her to serve an extended sentence in one of its prisons. Instead, the much more likely outcome in this instance is that Lohan gets another jail sentence from the judge - perhaps as long as a one year sentence - but she will serve only a small fraction of that sentence in an actual prison.

The rest will be "served" under house arrest or in various stages of half-way houses and shelters where Lohan will be required to perform community service and the like. We've seen all of this before, of course, which is why Lohan is due in court again today. Lindsay consistently fails to abide by the clearly stated terms of her probation. Even her most recent court-ordered community service at a morgue was botched on the first day, when Lohan was sent home after allegedly reporting 40 minutes late for her service.

With judges and the legal system running low on "normal" courses of action for Lohan, it seems as though she is eventually going to spend a significant amount of time in jail. Whether that is a result of continued probation violations or entirely new crimes remains to be seen.

In addition to her probation struggles, which stem originally from drunk and drugged-driving arrests in 2007, Lohan was also charged with stealing a necklace from a jewelry store last year. At this point, it's getting hard to imagine a happy ending for the former Disney starlet. She may already be too far gone.