She was released from the federal facility in Northern Cal early Friday morning. The scheduled release date was Sunday, but apparently there's a policy that inmates whose release date falls on a weekend get sprung the Friday before.

Felicity's still not finished with her sentence. She still has to perform 250 hours of community service. She's already paid the $30,000 fine in connection with her guilty plea in the college admissions scandal.

Mind you ... prosecutors initially were gunning for a year in prison for Felicity, which they scaled back to 4 months, and then one month. The Probation Dept. rebuffed prosecutors and said they'd be satisfied if she served no jail time.

Timing is everything.