- Bobby Brown must wear a monitor for eight days instead of spending time in jail
- Whitney Houston's ex has two DUI convictions in the past year
- Jail overcrowding means short stays behind bars in Los Angeles
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Bobby Brown walked out of a Los Angeles County jail after serving just nine hours of a 55-day sentence imposed for his second drunken driving conviction in a year.
A Los Angeles County probation officer determined that Brown, the ex-husband of Whitney Houston, was eligible to serve his time at home if he wore an electronic monitor bracelet, Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said. The singer is technically still in custody and under the control of the probation department, he said.
"He is presently home with family," his lawyer, Christopher Brown, said Thursday. "Mr. Brown has accepted responsibility for what occurred last October 2012. Mr. Brown is pleased that the matter has been resolved and to be home with this wife and young son."
Brown can take the bracelet, which he is paying for, off his leg after eight days, the same amount of time he would have otherwise spent behind bars, Whitmore said.
Good behavior rules and jail overcrowding guidelines add up to a sharp reduction in actual time served for county inmates, Whitmore said.
Brown, 44, was taken into custody at the Van Nuys, California, courthouse Wednesday, but was free about 10 hours later, Whitmore said.
The singer pleaded no contest to a drunken driving offense, driving with a suspended license and violating his probation from another drunken driving conviction last year.
He spent time in a "confidential rehabilitation center" last August as part of his plea deal for the April 2012 arrest.
He was arrested again in October after a police officer smelled "a strong scent of alcohol" when he approached Brown during the Ventura Boulevard traffic stop, a police spokesman said.
Brown and Houston divorced in 2007. He has one daughter, Bobbi Kristina, from his relationship with Houston, as well as three other children. Houston died a little more than a year ago.
Brown, who has been touring with his R&B group, New Edition, released "Masterpiece," his first solo album in 14 years, last June.
