Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced on Friday to 14 days in federal prison for her role in a college admissions conspiracy. In that conspiracy, 34 wealthy and mostly white parents of college-age children are alleged to have paid thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars, to inflate their children’s credentials during the college application season.
Huffman was the first parent to receive a judgment.
Judge Indira Talwani oversaw the sentencing in Boston, where an investigation by the US attorney for the District of Massachusetts accused some 50 people, including coaches, test administrators, and others, of falsifying college admissions credentials. Investigators said some of the accused changed answers on tests; others bribed athletic coaches to claim they had recruited students for sports they did not play.
The case shed light on the advantages that those with great financial resources have during the college admissions process, and on the fine line between acceptable upper-hands available to some — such as the ability to hire private tutors, access to internships, and legacy admissions — and outright fraud. It has also brought renewed attention to cases in which disadvantaged people, primarily poor parents of color, have faced strong punishment for educational fraud, placing a harsh spotlight on racial and economic discrepancies within American education.
Huffman was arrested in March of this year as part of the federal investigation into cheating during the college admissions process. She was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud, and pleaded guilty on May 13 to paying $15,000 for a test proctor to correct her daughter’s incorrect answers on the SAT, thus greatly inflating her daughter’s scores.
Beyond having to serve a fortnight in prison, Huffman must also pay a $30,000 fine and serve 250 hours of community service. She will commence her two-week prison sentence on October 25.
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