§2D1.2 Drug Offenses Occurring Near Protected Locations or Involving Underage or Pregnant Individuals: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017
In fiscal year 2017, 287 people were sentenced under guideline §2D1.2 as the primary guideline. A sentence within the guideline range was imposed for 56% of them (160), and 26% were below the range at the government's request. The median prison term was 70 months.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2D1.2 Drug Offenses Occurring Near Protected Locations or I › §2D1.2: FY2017
In brief: In fiscal year 2017, 287 people were sentenced under guideline §2D1.2 as the primary guideline. A sentence within the guideline range was imposed for 56% of them (160), and 26% were below the range at the government's request. The median prison term was 70 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 287 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.
Were Sentences Inside the Guideline Range?
The Sentencing Commission had range information for all 287 people. For 56% (160), the sentence was within the range.
For 26% (75), the sentence was below the range at the government's request. For another 16% (47), it was below the range without a government request. A sentence above the range was imposed for 2% (5).
The prior year, 2016, had 66% within the range. The following year, 2018, had 59%. Across all fiscal years from 2016 to 2025, the share within the range for §2D1.2 was 53%, and for all federal cases in fiscal year 2017 it was 49%.
Mandatory Minimums
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 270 of the 286 people with that information recorded (94%). A mandatory minimum is a floor set by statute.
This matters when reading the range figures above. A sentence can be below the guideline range and still be at or above a statutory floor, so the measures are not the same.
Prison Terms by Type of Conviction
Of the 287 people, 286 (more than 99%) received a prison term. One person (less than 1%) received probation only.
The median prison term was 70 months, or 5.8 years. A quarter of those sent to prison received 99.2 months or more, and a quarter received 37 months or less.
Guilty pleas accounted for 278 of 287 (97%), and 9 people were convicted after a trial. The median after a guilty plea was 70 months. After a trial it was 71 months, based on 9 people.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Plea Agreements
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 286 people (more than 99%), with a median term of 72 months. A fine was ordered for 5 (2%), and restitution for 2 (less than 1%).
Among guilty pleas, 92% had a written plea agreement and 6% were straight pleas with no agreement. In terms of criminal history, 46% were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 13% were in category VI, the highest.
About This Guideline and This Year
The Guidelines Manual title for §2D1.2 is "Drug Offenses Occurring Near Protected Locations or Involving Underage or Pregnant Individuals; Attempt or Conspiracy". The Commission's offense type for all 287 cases is Drug Trafficking.
Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
All federal cases that year, under every guideline, numbered 66,873. The median prison term was 24 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. Under §2D1.2 from 2016 to 2025, the total was 2,553 people with a median prison term of 72 months and 98% guilty pleas.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 328 | 70 months | 97% |
| 2017 | 287 | 70 months | 97% |
| 2018 | 218 | 70 months | 97% |
| 2019 | 281 | 70 months | 95% |
| 2020 | 297 | 66.5 months | 98% |
| 2021 | 252 | 75.4 months | 99% |
| 2022 | 208 | 70.2 months | more than 99% |
| 2023 | 276 | 84 months | 98% |
| 2024 | 229 | 78 months | 97% |
| 2025 | 177 | 72 months | 100% |
Limits of the Records
The Commission counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are missing. Prison terms are those imposed, not time served.
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the crosswalk, so this post stands on federal numbers alone. The records also do not explain why any sentence fell below the range.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2D1.2 (287), 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)
- §2D1.2 Drug Offenses Occurring Near Protected Locations or Involving Underage or Pregnant Individuals: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2D1.2 Drug Offenses Occurring Near Protected Locations or Involving Underage or Pregnant Individuals: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2D1.2 Drug Offenses Occurring Near Protected Locations or Involving Underage or Pregnant Individuals: 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.