U.S. Sentencing Commission Releases Criminal Case Data for FY 2020

A new report from the United States Sentencing Commission analyzes the 64,659 federal criminal cases in which the offender was sentenced in fiscal year 2020. Due to the pandemic, there was a 15.6 percent decrease from the 76,538 offenders reported in fiscal year 2019. The U.S. Sentencing Commission is a bipartisan, independent agency located in the judicial branch of government and was created by Congress in 1984 to reduce sentencing disparities and promote transparency and proportionality in sentencing.

The report notes that immigration cases made up 41.1 percent of all federal criminal cases that made it to sentencing in FY 2020. According to the commission, 82.7 percent of immigration cases involved either unlawful reentry into the U.S. or unlawfully remaining in the country, and the remaining 14.3 percent were alien smuggling cases.

Among drug related cases, methamphetamine cases were the most common. The 7,537 methamphetamine cases represented 45.7 percent of all drug crimes. While drug possession cases declined, drug trafficking cases increased.

Fewer companies and corporations were sentenced for crimes in 2020. Just 94 corporations were sentenced in 2020, compared to 118 in 2019. The commission reported that 93.6 percent of organizations pled guilty to one or more charges in the last fiscal year, and the most common charges were fraud or embezzlement.

In fiscal year 2020, 97.8 percent of offenders pled guilty to their charges and 89.1 percent were sentenced to prison. The average sentence imposed in the last fiscal year was 40 months, and many orders for compassionate release were granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus spreading among inmates and prison staff.

For more specific geographic and demographic data on federal sentencing, the commission offers an online Interactive Data Analyzer or “IDA”.