More than 57,000 offenders were sentenced to prison for federal crimes such as drug trafficking in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021. That’s according to the 2021 Annual Report and Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics just issued by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
The total of 57,287 felony and Class A misdemeanor cases marked a decrease of 7,278 federal sentencing cases from the previous fiscal year, the commission said.
In the latest fiscal year, 83.1 percent of such cases involved drug trafficking, immigration, firearms and fraud crimes.
Image credit and source: (PDF) 2021 Annual Report and 2021 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics
Drug trafficking offenses alone comprised 31.3 percent, or almost one-third, of federal crimes which led to sentencing. That made drug crimes the most common type of federal crime resulting in sentencing.
Among federal drug crime offenses, those involving methamphetamine remained the most common in the federal system. The commission said 48 percent of drug case sentencing, or nearly half, involved that drug.
In fact, meth cases have been growing steadily in the ranks of illegal drugs in the federal system. In fiscal year 2016, meth offenses comprised 31 percent of all federal drug cases. Since then, meth crimes’ share of federal drug sentencing has risen by almost 50 percent.
Image credit and source: (PDF) 2021 Annual Report and 2021 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics
Also on the rise in drug offenses is fentanyl, which joined meth among the top five drug types in the federal caseload in the latest fiscal year. The Sentencing Commission thus added it to the Drug Offenses section of its Sourcebook.
Methamphetamine trafficking also remained the most severely punished federal drug crime. Under federal law, persons convicted of having any amount more than 5 grams of meth face a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum prison sentence of 40 years.
The commission reported that the average sentence for methamphetamine trafficking was 90 months, or 7½ years. That was an increase of four months over the 86-month average sentence for meth in the previous fiscal year.
Image credit and source: (PDF) 2021 Annual Report and 2021 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics
Other average sentences for federal drug crimes were 69 months in prison for crack cocaine cases, 68 months for powder cocaine cases, 60 months for fentanyl and heroin cases and 30 months for marijuana cases.
More than two-thirds, or 67.7 percent, of federal drug offenders were convicted of an offense which carried a mandatory minimum penalty. That was up slightly from the previous fiscal year.
Immigration just behind drug offenses
Among sentencing for federal crimes in fiscal year 2021, not far behind drug offenses were immigration offenses.
Those comprised 29.6 percent of all federal sentencing. Even so, such immigration cases declined by more than one-third from the previous fiscal year.
If you are a non-citizen but legal immigrant to the United States and face possible deportation for a drug possession charge, you may be able to avoid this severe setback thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down in 2010.
Firearms, fraud cases also are common
After immigration cases, firearms and fraud cases were the most common among federal offenses, with firearms comprising 14.2 percent of all federal offenses leading to sentencing, followed by fraud, theft and embezzlement combined, which totaled 8 percent of all federal offenses.
Other federal offenses were far behind these, with each comprising less than 3 percent of the total which led to sentencing. Those offenses included robbery, money laundering, sexual abuse and child pornography.
The report found that firearm offenders were the most likely to recidivate, or resume that criminal activity, upon release from prison.
The commission found that 69 percent, or more than two-thirds, of firearms offenders were arrested again for such an offense during an eight-year follow-up period. All other federal crime offenders returned to the crime less than half of the time, with a 45.1 percent rate of recidivism.
Houston-area crime figures also emerge
The commission’s report also broke down the numbers by federal courts, including the one in Houston, which is in the Fifth Circuit of the federal system.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, located in Houston, had 7,508 felony cases along with 15 Class A misdemeanor cases in the last fiscal year, for a total of 7,523 federal crimes.
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