Singer Bobby Brown released from jail after 9 hours

LOS ANGELES, March 21 (UPI) -- Singer Bobby Brown was released from a Los Angeles jail nine hours after he began serving his 55-day sentence for driving under the influence, TMZ said.

Brown, 44, left the jail Wednesday at 6:58 p.m. after checking in that morning, the celebrity news website said. Overcrowding in the building was the reason for his early departure, TMZ said.

The singer pleaded no contest in February to charges he was driving drunk with a suspended license when arrested last October. He has been placed on probation for four years and will be under court order to attend three AA meetings a week and go through an 18-month alcohol-treatment program. He also will be required to have an alcohol interlock device installed on his car.

TMZ said this is Brown's third driving DUI conviction.

Brown, who has a history of substance abuse, was the ex-husband of the late pop star Whitney Houston, who drowned in a hotel bathtub in February 2012 after drinking and using drugs.