More than a year ago, “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman was given a two-week sentence for her role in the college admissions scandal that involved more than 30 parents. She pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to commit mail fraud” and “honest services mail fraud” for paying $15,000 to William “Rick” Singer, the so-called “mastermind” who facilitated the plan to fraudulently have students recruited as “athletes” by coaches at respective universities and/or have their SAT scores boosted.
Huffman didn’t serve the entire sentence and was released in 11 days, as per a complicated bureau policy that allows for early release. Since her release, the Emmy-winning star has been surprisingly inundated with TV and pilot series offers. Last week, she booked an ABC series written by Becky Hartman Edwards and inspired by the life of Susan Savage, the owner of the Triple-A baseball team Sacramento River Cats.
However, Huffman is an exception. A 2018 Brookings Institute report found that ex-prisoners have a very difficult time finding work after their release, regardless of what their charges were. Only 55 percent reported earnings a full year after release and only 20 percent of these reported earnings exceeded $15,000, the highest bracket. The lowest went down to a paltry $500 annually.
In a 2017 Business Insider interview, Gerald Alvarez, an ex-convict, spoke about a formerly incarcerated friend who found a plumbing job but was then arrested for carrying a knife, which was part of his toolbox. The friend was sentenced for two to four years for carrying a tool, a far cry from Huffman’s 11 days. For many, this disparity, in both sentencing and what life after prison can look like, epitomizes the class and racial privilege that people like Felicity Huffman and her associates wield as opposed to the majority-Black and brown folks who are incarcerated in the United States.
