Federal Environmental Offense Sentences in the District of Utah, FY2016–2025
Most federal environmental offense cases in the District of Utah ended in probation only. Of 20 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 16 (80%) received probation with no prison, and 4 (20%) received a prison term with a median of 2 months. Across all 94 districts, 28% of environmental cases
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Sentences in the District of Utah, FY2016–2025 › Environmental Offense: District of Utah
In brief: Most federal environmental offense cases in the District of Utah ended in probation only. Of 20 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 16 (80%) received probation with no prison, and 4 (20%) received a prison term with a median of 2 months. Across all 94 districts, 28% of environmental cases ended in prison.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 20 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.
Probation Was the Usual Sentence
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 20 people sentenced in the District of Utah under its offense type "Environmental." Of those, 16 (80%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The other 4 (20%) received a prison term.
For all 94 federal districts together, the Commission counted 1,638 people in this offense type, and 28% were sent to prison. Prison was therefore less common in Utah environmental cases than in the national group, though the Utah group is small.
For all offenses in the District of Utah, the median prison term was 30 months. Environmental cases were less than 1% of the 7,061 people sentenced in the district in fiscal years 2016 to 2025.
Which Guidelines Applied
The offense type is the Commission's category, not a single statute. The most common primary guidelines were §2Q2.1 (Offenses Involving Fish, Wildlife, and Plants), with 5 people, and §2Q1.2 (Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides), with 3 people.
The remaining cases used other primary guidelines .
Prison Terms for the 4 Who Received Them
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 2 months. A quarter received 4.5 months or more, and a quarter received 1.5 months or less. The median for all districts in this offense type was 5 months.
With only 4 people in the prison group, the median is easy to move with a single case. The yearly table shows a median of 7 months in fiscal year 2019 and 2 months in fiscal year 2024, and it lists n/a for years where no one in the group went to prison.
Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1 | n/a | 0 of 1 |
| 2017 | 3 | 0.1 months | 3 of 3 |
| 2018 | 3 | n/a | 3 of 3 |
| 2019 | 5 | 7 months | 5 of 5 |
| 2021 | 2 | n/a | 1 of 2 |
| 2022 | 1 | n/a | 0 of 1 |
| 2024 | 1 | 2 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2025 | 4 | n/a | 4 of 4 |
Pleas, Trials, and Plea Agreements
17 of 20 people (85%) pleaded guilty, and 3 were convicted after a trial. Across all districts, 98% of environmental cases ended in a guilty plea, and for all offenses in the District of Utah the figure was 99%. Trials were therefore more common here than in either comparison.
Among the guilty pleas, 59% had a written plea agreement and 41% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals do not appear.
Fines, Restitution, and Supervised Release
A fine was ordered for 14 people (70%), and restitution for 8 (40%). Only 3 people (15%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 12 months. That is expected for a group in which most people received probation only.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 8 people with that information recorded. Criminal history was recorded for 8 people, and 7 of those 8 were in the lowest category, category I. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Position Against the Guideline Range
Of the 19 people with this information, 63% (12) were sentenced within the guideline range. Another 21% (4) were sentenced below the range at the government's request, and 16% (3) below the range without a government request. No sentence was above the range.
Within-range sentences were more common here than the 50% for this offense type in all districts, and more common than the 24% for all offenses in the District of Utah.
Limits of These Numbers
There were 12 people in fiscal years 2016 to 2019 and 8 in fiscal years 2020 to 2025. Several years have 1 to 3 people, and the table has no entries for fiscal years 2020 and 2023, so the counts do not support a trend.
Hill AFB, Utah, is in this district. Courts-martial are tried in military courts, not in this federal district court, and this post reports federal numbers on their own.
The records do not show the facts behind any case or why a person received probation instead of prison.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in the District of Utah (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "Utah") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "Environmental" (20). 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.
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 District of Utah, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the District of Utah, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the District of Utah, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Firearms Sentences in the District of Utah, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement Sentences in the District of Utah, 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.