Andrew Fastow may not have to settle in too much at the Houston halfway house where he arrived this week. The former Enron finance chief is eligible in less than a month to complete a federal sentence at his Houston home.

Fastow was moved from a Louisiana prison to the Houston facility on Monday to begin serving the remainder of a six-year Enron-related sentence that ends on Dec. 17, when he'll begin two years of probation.

But according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, his eligibility date for in-home confinement — under which he can live at home with his wife and two sons under some restrictions - is June 17.

That doesn't necessarily mean that he will be allowed to begin living at home on that date.

Fastow's former colleague, Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey, was eligible to begin serving the remainder of his five-year, six-month sentence on in-home detention last month, but didn't go home until Tuesday, the day after Fastow arrived in Houston. Causey's final release date is Oct. 15.

Fastow's attorney, David Gerger, declined comment, but Causey's attorney, Reid Weingarten, said he was pleased his client is back at home.

"I'm optimistic he will do well now that the separation is over," Weingarten said.

He wasn't sure what Causey plans to do for employment or community service. "I'm sure we will have some important conversations about this," Weingarten said.

Fastow's wife

While federal prison officials said they couldn't confirm where Fastow is detained, the only federal halfway house in Houston is the Leidel Comprehensive Sanctions Center on Commerce Street near Minute Maid Park. It's the same facility where Fastow's wife, Lea Fastow, spent a month at the end of her one-year sentence in 2005 for lying on tax returns, and where Causey stayed before going home Tuesday.

Another former Enron executive, Rex Shelby, also has been at that facility for the past week, said his lawyer, Ed Tomko.

Shelby, a former technology executive with Enron's broadband division, will serve three months in the halfway house and three months of in-home confinement, as well as two years on probation. His case wound through the courts for several years before he pleaded guilty in March to a single count of insider trading.

Not special treatment

Prison officials say that transfer to halfway houses and in-home detention are the norm for nonviolent offenders nearing the end of their sentences, not special treatment given to white-collar defendants or ones who cooperate with prosecutors.

For many years the Federal Bureau of Prisons has moved inmates to low-security facilities near their homes to help reintegrate them into their communities, bureau spokesman Chris Burke said.

The practice was formalized in 2008 with the Second Chance Act, which provided additional funding for end-of-sentence transitions.

Inmates at such facilities generally have much more freedom than in other prison settings, are allowed to wear their own clothes and are usually allowed to leave during the day for pre-approved jobs or community service work.

"The initial few days are much more supervised and restrictive until the facility staff has done an orientation with the inmate and built a program for the rest of their sentence," Burke said.

That means Fastow likely won't be allowed visitors until officials approve a list and likely won't be allowed to leave the halfway house immediately.

Over time he will get greater freedom and will be encouraged to get a job during the day or do community service, but there will still be restrictions such as regular head counts and drug testing.

If Fastow is allowed to move to in-home confinement, he will still be under some limitations, including leaving the house only for pre-approved reasons. He may also be required to wear a tracking ankle bracelet and be subject to surprise visits or phone calls from officials.

Difficult transition?

Fastow and Causey may face a difficult transition in readjusting to life outside prison, said Richard Nevills, a former Texas prison inmate who works with Houston activist and inmate advocate Ray Hill.

Nevills served eight years in state prison for theft before he was released last September, including a two-month stint in another Houston halfway house run by the same firm that runs the one downtown.

"Somewhere between the fifth and sixth year behind bars is when it seems prison becomes your world, even with regular visits from the outside," Nevills said.

Nevills said he had a hard time going back to restaurants and stores that he frequented for decades before his prison time.

And while he knows the Enron inmates were in much different facilities than where he served time - "for lack of a better term, it seems the federal system gets a better class of inmate" - he suspects the challenges might be the same.

"It's a tough adjustment even the Enron folks are going to have to go through," Nevills said. "Without someone who has actually been there, no one will actually understand it."

tom.fowler@chron.com