Felicity Huffman Released From Prison Early After Serving 11 Days Of Two-Week Sentence

Actress Felicity Huffman has been released from prison early after serving 11 days of a 14-day sentence.

The 56-year-old “Desperate Housewives” star began serving her time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California on Oct. 15 but was released on Friday, rather than Sunday, due to a policy wherein inmates who are scheduled to be released over the weekend are allowed to leave on Friday, a spokesperson for FCI Dublin confirmed to Variety.

Huffman was one of dozens of wealthy parents accused earlier this year of spending thousands of dollars in bribe money to get their children into top-ranked universities. Huffman paid $15,000 to William “Rick” Singer, the mastermind orchestrating the scheme, in order to have her eldest daughter’s SAT scores altered. She pleaded guilty in May and apologized for her actions in a letter to the judge.

“I have broken the law, deceived the educational community, betrayed my daughter, and failed my family,” that letter reads, in part.

A judge sentenced Huffman in September to a two-week prison term to be followed by a year of probation, in addition to a $30,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.

Huffman, who shares two daughters with actor William H. Macy, was photographed on Saturday during family visiting day at the prison, when her husband and youngest daughter came to see her at the facility. Photos taken of Huffman on prison grounds show her wearing what appears to be a dark green jumpsuit, dark glasses, and sneakers (a look that Martha Stewart, fellow celeb ex-con, deemed “schlumpy” earlier this week).

Huffman was the first celeb parent to be sentenced for her participation in the scheme, and Andrew Lelling, the U.S Attorney for Massachusetts, praised her handling of the charges during an interview with Boston’s WCVB earlier this month.

“She took responsibility almost immediately, she was contrite, did not try to minimize her conduct. I think she handled it in a very classy way,” he said.

“Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, have also been charged in relation to the scheme, with prosecutors alleging that the couple paid $500,000 to have their daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as recruits of the crew team, even though neither played the sport.

In response to charges of money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and honest services mail and wire fraud — to which they pleaded not guilty — they were hit with an additional charge of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery earlier this week.