Federal Arson Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY2016–2025
In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 10 people were sentenced for arson in the Southern District of Florida. All 10 pleaded guilty, all received a prison term, and a mandatory minimum applied to all 10. The median was 60 months (5 years), the same as for arson in all 94 federal districts together.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY201 › Arson: Southern District of Florida
In brief: In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 10 people were sentenced for arson in the Southern District of Florida. All 10 pleaded guilty, all received a prison term, and a mandatory minimum applied to all 10. The median was 60 months (5 years), the same as for arson in all 94 federal districts together.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 10 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
The Mandatory Minimum Applied Every Time
A mandatory minimum is a prison term set by statute that a judge must impose as a floor. It applied to 10 of the 10 people here (100%). This is the clearest feature of the group.
The median prison term was 60 months, or 5 years. A quarter of the people received 60 months or more, and a quarter received 60 months or less. The terms were imposed sentences, not time served.
How the District Compares Nationally
Arson cases in all 94 districts totaled 742 people. 96% were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 60 months, matching this district.
Every offense type in this district together had a median prison term of 32 months. Arson is therefore a longer-sentence category here, as it is nationally.
One Guideline, All Guilty Pleas
The Sentencing Commission's "Arson" offense type here consisted entirely of one primary guideline, §2K1.4 (Arson). All 10 people pleaded guilty, so there were no trials to compare.
Written plea agreements covered 90% of the pleas, and 10% were straight pleas. The guilty plea rate was 93% for arson in all 94 districts and 95% for all offenses in this district.
Sentence Position Against the Range
The guideline range is an advisory range that a judge calculates from the facts of the case. 9 of the 10 sentences (90%) were inside it, and 1 (10%) was above it.
No sentence was below the range. Across all 94 districts, 45% of arson sentences were inside the range, and across all offenses in this district the share was 55%.
Supervised Release and Restitution
Supervised release is a period of court oversight after prison. All 10 people (100%) received it, and the median term was 36 months.
No fine was ordered, but restitution was ordered for 9 people (90%). 20% of the people were in the lowest criminal history category, and 0% were in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Year-by-Year Counts
5 people were sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2019, and 5 in fiscal years 2020 to 2025. Each listed year has 1, 2, or 3 people.
The yearly median was 60 months except in fiscal year 2024, when it was 78 months for 3 people. These counts are too small to show a trend.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1 | 60 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2017 | 2 | 60 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2018 | 1 | 60 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2019 | 1 | 60 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2024 | 3 | 78 months | 3 of 3 |
| 2025 | 2 | 60 months | 2 of 2 |
What the Records Leave Out
The 10 people are less than 1% of the 17,081 people sentenced in this district in the period. The Commission counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are absent. The records do not describe any fire, any damage, or the facts of a single case.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in the Southern District of Florida (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "Florida South") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "Arson" (10). Offense types are the Commission's OFFGUIDE categories.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- Federal Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Firearms Sentences in the Southern District of Florida, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.