President Bush's niece freed from jail

Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s only daughter, Noelle, was released from jail today, 10 days after a judge ordered her locked up for violating terms of her court-ordered drug treatment programme.

Bush left the Orange County jail around 4am (local time), said Allen Moore, spokesman for the county corrections department.

Noelle Bush, 25, was caught in September with a small amount of crack cocaine by workers at the Centre for Drug-Free Living.

The governor and his wife Columba briefly visited Noelle in jail on Tuesday. Besides her parents’ visit, jail officials allowed David Brown, a Bush family friend, to see her on October 19.

This was the second time Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead has sent Noelle Bush to the Orange County jail as punishment since she entered rehab in February. She was jailed for three days in July after a worker caught her with another worker’s prescription pills taken from a cabinet.

After she gets out of jail, she was to return to the drug treatment facility.

Bush, the president’s niece, was arrested in January at a Tallahassee pharmacy drive-through window for allegedly trying to buy the anti-anxiety drug Xanax with a fraudulent prescription.

She was admitted to the treatment centre a month later, with the possibility charges would be dropped if she completed the programme.