LOS ANGELES - Paris Hilton is settling into her cell at an all-women's jail and is doing better, her parents said after a weekend visit.

They said the 26-year-old socialite is passing the time at the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, Calif., reading letters from fans, relatives and friends and reflecting on her life.

"Basically just reading and just sitting there thinking...what she wants to do with her life and the changes that she wants to make," Kathy Hilton told Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren on Monday.

"She's never been alone so this is, as she calls it, a real time out," her mother said of Sunday's visit, where Hilton talked with her parents from behind a glass partition.

Hilton's father, Rick, said she is doing "much better" and gave him a handmade Father's Day card.

"It was kind of cute," he said.

"She had written a card for me and in front of it was a cartoon and it showed me holding her hand against the glass with her on the other side. Quite touching."

Rick Hilton also denied rumours his father donated money to Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca to garner favours for his daughter. He said the donation was made 18 months ago and was just US$1,000.

"A lot of business people in L.A., I'm sure, also donate to the sheriff," he said.

Hilton, whose unidentified psychological problems prompted Baca to release her from jail until a judge ordered her back behind bars, spent nearly a week in a medical unit in a downtown jail. She was transferred to the Lynwood jail last week after her condition stabilized, authorities said.

Hilton expects to be released June 25, when she will have served about 23 days of a 45-day sentence.

"She sees the light at the end of the tunnel," Rick Hilton said.