Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman are not friends, as admitted by Loughlin, but “she feels their fates are tied together now” as both are involved in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal. Loughlin hopes to talk to Huffman when she ends her time in prison to get a glimpse of what she may be facing herself.

Loughlin reached out to Huffman before she went to prison but was unsuccessful. She said she wanted to encourage her and ask how she was doing as she prepared to serve her sentence.

Huffman, 56, reported to prison on Tuesday. According to the source, Loughlin, 55, wants to see how Huffman deals with her time behind bars. “She wants to debrief Felicity after jail to find out what it was like and what her advice would be,” says the source. “She feels like Felicity’s time in jail will be an indicator on her own time, and she’s extremely curious to know how it goes.”

I suppose that’s a natural curiosity on the part of Loughlin, seeing as how she might need to know how a well-known actress is treated in a prison setting. How much of an indicator it will be of her own time behind bars is a different question. We don’t know where Loughlin will serve her sentence or for how long she will serve. Loughlin is slowly coming out of denial that she will even serve any time at all, according to reports, but there is a very strong possibility that her sentence will be much more severe than Felicity Huffman’s 14 days.

The source continues: “She’s definitely hoping that Felicity’s time in prison will go easy for her, because that will be a positive sign that, if Lori has to serve time, that she’ll be able to weather it as well. Of course, it’s still very important for her to be exonerated of all charges against her. She still maintains her innocence, and hopes it won’t come to that. But if she does end up serving time in prison, she wants to know what she’s getting into.”

Huffman is in a low-security facility that, from all reporting, is more like a retreat than a prison. Why, there is even canned salmon and make-up available in the “fully stocked” commissary.

Reports from life inside Huffman’s female federal prison may give Loughlin some relief.

‘It’s essentially like a camp, as opposed to a prison where you’re incarcerated in individual cells,’ Page Six reported Assistant US Attorney Neama Rahmani as saying on Tuesday.

‘Folks are in some common environment.’

Her fellow prisoners will be individuals involved in white collar crime and fraud rather than murderers and thieves.

There’s a fully stocked commissary with cans of salmon and beef bites and even the option to buy make up.

I don’t think Huffman deserved to be sentenced to a chain gang at Angola but clearly a message had to be sent to other parents who were considering going the route of other wealthy parents in order to get their kids into college. Huffman shelled out $15,000 while Loughlin and her husband paid $500,000 for their daughter. Loughlin’s level of cheating was much higher than Huffman’s. Also, Huffman’s daughter wasn’t even aware that her mom was writing a check in order for her to get a higher admissions test score. Loughlin’s daughter was in on the scam.

Loughlin and her husband have taken a different approach to handle the mess in which they find themselves. Huffman begged forgiveness, was profusely apologetic to the court and to her family, and accepted her punishment. Essentially, she threw herself on the mercy of the court. Loughlin and her husband refused a plea deal and decided to go to trial. She continues to claim innocence of wrongdoing. This will likely bring a much harsher outcome for them.

One prison consultant isn’t feeling sorry for Huffman at all. He notes the prison in Dublin, California is like a Club Fed and one of “America’s 10 Cushiest Prisons” according to Forbes.

Huffman is likely housed in the Dublin prison’s minimum-security satellite camp for women, which has long been described in the media as “Club Fed” and which made its way onto a 2009 Forbes list of “America’s 10 Cushiest Prisons.”

During her two weeks, Huffman will have access to a gym and TV room and bunk in cubicles with several other inmates in a dormitory-like setting. She also will be able to do some reading, light work and get some respite from the stresses of her scandal, added Levine, a former federal prison inmate who now helps white-collar defendants navigate the criminal justice system and prepare for life behind bars.

“I have less than zero-percent sympathy for her,” said Levine, the founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants.

Others who have gone the route of Loughlin – denying guilt and refusing plea deals – are having second thoughts. Take, for example, the former CEO of investment giant Pimco, Douglas Hodge. He’s in the same ballpark as Loughlin with his financial expenditures. He is expected to plead guilty on October 21.

The expected plea is a sign some of the parents who have so far maintained their innocence in the college admissions scandal may be caving after months of legal wrangling and public scorn. Hodge, a resident of Laguna Beach, was accused of paying a total of $525,000 to have his daughter and son admitted to USC as phony soccer and football recruits.

Hodge’s forthcoming guilty plea, scheduled for Oct. 21, is significant. He is the first to signal an intention to plead guilty among a group of parents who, after balking at an early deal from prosecutors to plead to a single fraud conspiracy charge, were indicted on an additional charge of money laundering. That group of 19 parents includes actress Lori Loughlin and her husband J. Mossimo Giannulli, a fashion designer.

Hodge’s apparent reversal comes after eight parents, who agreed in April to plead guilty to the single fraud conspiracy charge, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 days for actress Felicity Huffman to five months for Agustin Huneeus Jr., a Napa vintner. A ninth parent, Peter Jan Sartorio, was spared prison and punished instead with a fine and community service.

We’ll soon know if Huffman agrees to counsel Loughlin about her upcoming punishment. She began serving her 14-day sentence Tuesday so she’ll be out and about in no time.