Desperate Housewives actor Felicity Huffman has been released from a California prison on the 11th day of a 14-day sentence for her role in a college admissions scandal.
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Huffman was released from the low security prison for women because under prison policy, inmates scheduled for weekend release are let out on Friday, the US Bureau of Prisons said.
It wasn't immediately clear why she was released on Friday because Monday would have been the 14th day of her term.
Her husband, actor William H Macy, dropped off Huffman - also known as inmate No. 77806-112 - at the prison in the San Francisco Bay Area on October 15.
A federal judge in Boston last month sentenced Huffman, 56, to two weeks in prison, a $US30,000 ($A44,000) fine, 250 hours of community service and a year's probation after she pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy.
Huffman admitted to paying an admissions consultant $US15,000 ($A22,000) to have a proctor correct her daughter's college admission test.
The Emmy-award winning actress tearfully apologised at her sentencing, saying she had been "frightened", stupid" and "so wrong".
Huffman was the first parent sentenced in a scandal involving dozens of wealthy parents accused of bribing their children's way into elite universities or cheating on college entrance exams.
Other parents in the far-reaching scandal could face far stiffer sentences.
On Tuesday, a grand jury in Boston indicted Full House actor Lori Loughlin, her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannuli and nine other parents on new charges of trying to bribe officials at an organisation that receives at least $US10,000 ($A14,600) in federal funding.
Loughlin and Giannulli have pleaded not guilty.
Australian Associated Press
