§2B1.5 Theft of, Damage to, or Destruction of, Cultural Heritage Resources: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 21 people were sentenced in federal court under §2B1.5, and all 21 pleaded guilty. 5 of the 21 (24%) received a prison term, with a median of 6 months, and 9 (43%) received probation only. 9 sentences (43%) were within the guideline range.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 21 people were sentenced in federal court under §2B1.5, and all 21 pleaded guilty. 5 of the 21 (24%) received a prison term, with a median of 6 months, and 9 (43%) received probation only. 9 sentences (43%) were within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 21 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
Few Prison Terms Among 21 Guilty Pleas
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 21 people sentenced in fiscal year 2016 whose primary guideline was §2B1.5. All 21 (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. Every one of the guilty pleas had a written plea agreement.
5 of the 21 (24%) received a prison term. 9 (43%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The records here do not break out what the other 7 people received.
Only convicted and sentenced people are in the Commission data. Acquittals and dismissals are not counted.
Short Prison Terms
The median prison term among the 5 people sent to prison was 6 months. A quarter received 8 months or more, and a quarter received 1 months or less. These are the terms imposed, not time served.
4 people (19%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 24 months. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 21 people.
How the Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
9 of the 21 sentences (43%) were within the range. 6 (29%) were below the range at the government's request, and 5 (24%) were below it without a government request. 1 (5%) was above the range.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 31% of sentences under this guideline were within the range. The 2016 share was higher than that, and the next year, fiscal year 2017, had 24%.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 9 people (43%), and restitution was ordered for 9 (43%). 81% of the people were in the lowest criminal history category, category I, and 0% were in the highest, category VI.
Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so there is no military number to set beside these.
Fiscal Year 2016 Against Later Years and All Guidelines
Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016. It had the largest count of any year in the table. Fiscal year 2017 had 17 people and a median prison term of 8.8 months.
For fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 122 people were sentenced under §2B1.5. 46% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 11.8 months, and 93% pleaded guilty. The share sent to prison in 2016 was lower than 46%, and the median was lower than 11.8 months.
For all guidelines in fiscal year 2016, 67,742 people were sentenced. The median prison term was 24 months, 97% pleaded guilty, and 49% of sentences were within the range.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 21 | 6 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 17 | 8.8 months | 94% |
| 2018 | 9 | 15 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2019 | 12 | 24 months | 92% |
| 2020 | 8 | 12 months | 7 of 8 |
| 2021 | 7 | 18 months | 6 of 7 |
| 2022 | 7 | 11.6 months | 7 of 7 |
| 2023 | 12 | 6 months | 92% |
| 2024 | 11 | 2.5 months | 82% |
| 2025 | 18 | 12 months | 94% |
What the Guideline Covers and What Is Missing
The Manual titles §2B1.5 "Theft of, Damage to, or Destruction of, Cultural Heritage Resources." The Commission files these cases under Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement. The records do not describe any case or explain why most people did not receive prison.
The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so the post reports federal numbers only.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B1.5 (21), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
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)
- §2B1.5 Theft of, Damage to, or Destruction of, Cultural Heritage Resources: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B1.5 Theft of, Damage to, or Destruction of, Cultural Heritage Resources: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- 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.