§2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017
Every one of the 60 people sentenced under §2B2.1 in fiscal year 2017 received a prison term. The median prison term was 21 months, and a quarter received 42 months or more. 59 people (98%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a R › §2B2.1: FY2017
In brief: Every one of the 60 people sentenced under §2B2.1 in fiscal year 2017 received a prison term. The median prison term was 21 months, and a quarter received 42 months or more. 59 people (98%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 60 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017. 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.
All 60 Received Prison Terms
In fiscal year 2017, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 60 people whose primary guideline was §2B2.1. The Guidelines Manual titles it "Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence." 60 of the 60 (100%) were sentenced to prison, and 0 received probation only.
The median prison term was 21 months. A quarter received 42 months or more, and a quarter received 8.8 months or less. All 60 were ordered to serve supervised release afterward, with a median term of 36 months.
Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 92% of the people sentenced under this guideline went to prison. The median prison term for all of those years was also 21 months.
| 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% |
One Trial Conviction
1 person was convicted after a trial, and that person was sentenced to 21 months in prison. The other 59 pleaded guilty, with a median prison term of 21 months. The Commission's tables report trial and plea medians separately, but one person is too few to compare trial and plea sentences.
Among the guilty pleas, 88% had a written plea agreement and 12% were straight pleas. The Commission's data includes only people who were convicted and sentenced, so it does not show cases that ended in acquittal or dismissal.
Sentences Against the Guideline Range
31 people (52%) were within the guideline range. 16 (27%) were below it without a government request, 10 (17%) were below it at the government's request, and 3 (5%) were above it.
The within-range share was 55% in fiscal year 2016 and 59% in fiscal year 2018. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2017 it was 49%. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 2 of the 54 people with that information recorded (4%).
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
No fine was ordered for any of the 60 people. Restitution was ordered for 45 (75%).
15% were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 7% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Adjacent Years and All Federal Cases
Fiscal year 2016 had 40 people under this guideline and a median prison term of 18 months. Fiscal year 2018 had 34 people and a median of 24 months. This post covers one fiscal year only, and the table lists every fiscal year from 2016 to 2025 for readers who want the full range of counts and medians.
All guidelines combined in fiscal year 2017 covered 66,873 people, with a median prison term of 24 months and 97% guilty pleas. The Commission classifies these 60 cases as the offense type Burglary/Trespass.
Limits
Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The approved crosswalk gives no close court-martial counterpart, so only federal numbers appear here. The records do not explain why any sentence was chosen.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B2.1 (60), 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 2016 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2B2.1 Burglary of a Residence or a Structure Other than a Residence: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (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.