§2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 40 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B2.1 as the primary guideline. All 40 pleaded guilty, and 33% of the guilty pleas had no written plea agreement. 36 people (90%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 18 months.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a R › §2B2.1: FY2016
In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 40 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B2.1 as the primary guideline. All 40 pleaded guilty, and 33% of the guilty pleas had no written plea agreement. 36 people (90%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 18 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 40 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.
Guilty Pleas With and Without Agreements
All 40 people in this group (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. The Commission's records also show whether a written plea agreement existed. 68% of the guilty pleas had one, and 33% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 99% of the people sentenced under this guideline pleaded guilty. The Commission's data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are not in it.
Prison Terms
The Guidelines Manual titles §2B2.1 "Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence." In fiscal year 2016, 36 of the 40 people (90%) were sentenced to prison. 3 (8%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 18 months. A quarter received 33.8 months or more, and a quarter received 9 months or less. These are the terms imposed, not time served.
36 people (90%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 36 months. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 2 of the 34 people with that information recorded (6%).
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 40 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 60 | 21 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 34 | 24 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 48 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 36 | 18 months | 94% |
| 2021 | 54 | 22.5 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 69 | 24 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 48 | 26.5 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 52 | 25.5 months | 98% |
| 2025 | 34 | 19 months | 97% |
Where Sentences Fell Against the Guideline Range
22 people (55%) were sentenced within the guideline range. 13 (33%) were below it without a government request, 3 (8%) were below it at the government's request, and 2 (5%) were above it.
The within-range share for this guideline over fiscal years 2016 to 2025 was 52%. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016, under every guideline, it was 49%.
Criminal History, Fines, and Restitution
23% of the group were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 10% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
A fine was ordered for 1 person (3%), and restitution for 28 (70%). The records show whether an order was made, not the amount.
Context From Other Years and All Guidelines
The next fiscal year, 2017, had 60 people under this guideline, a median prison term of 21 months, and 52% within the range. Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 475 people were sentenced under §2B2.1. 92% went to prison, and the median prison term was 21 months.
All guidelines combined in fiscal year 2016 covered 67,742 people, with a median prison term of 24 months. The Commission classifies the 40 cases here as the offense type Burglary/Trespass.
What This Count Leaves Out
Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016. A count of 40 people is small, and one year cannot show a trend. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so the post reports federal numbers only. The records do not describe individual cases.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B2.1 (40), 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.
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)
- §2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence: 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.