§2G3.1 Importing, Mailing, or Transporting Obscene Matter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
All 25 people sentenced under guideline §2G3.1 in fiscal year 2016 received a prison term. The median prison term was 26 months (2.2 years), and 24 of the 25 (96%) pleaded guilty.
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In brief: All 25 people sentenced under guideline §2G3.1 in fiscal year 2016 received a prison term. The median prison term was 26 months (2.2 years), and 24 of the 25 (96%) pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 25 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.
Every Person Went to Prison, With a Median of 26 Months
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 25 people in fiscal year 2016 whose primary guideline was §2G3.1, titled "Importing, Mailing, or Transporting Obscene Matter" in the Guidelines Manual. Each of the 25 (100%) received a prison term. None received probation only.
The median prison term was 26 months, which is 2.2 years. A quarter of the group received 36 months or more, and a quarter received 20 months or less.
Across all fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 89% of people sentenced under this guideline were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 28.9 months. The 2016 median was lower than that all-years median.
Sentences Above the Guideline Range
For 17 people (68%), the sentence was within the guideline range. For 6 (24%), it was above the range. For 2 (8%), it was below the range without a government request, and for 0 (0%), it was below the range at the government's request.
Across all years under this guideline, 38% of sentences were within the range, so the 2016 share was higher. In 2017, the within-range share was 27%. Among all federal cases in 2016, it was 49%.
Pleas, Plea Agreements, and the Single Trial
One person was convicted after a trial, and 24 pleaded guilty. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 25 months. The term for the person convicted at trial was 57 months. A single case cannot show how pleas and trials compare.
Of those who pleaded guilty, 96% had a written plea agreement, and 4% pleaded guilty with no agreement. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to anyone in the group.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 25 | 26 months | 96% |
| 2017 | 26 | 25.5 months | 100% |
| 2018 | 22 | 27 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 25 | 25.5 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 21 | 24 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 37 | 33 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 33 | 46 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 41 | 26.5 months | 98% |
| 2024 | 26 | 46 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 28 | 27 months | 100% |
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
Every person (100%) was ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 36 months. A fine was ordered for 3 people (12%). Restitution was ordered for 0 (0%).
Criminal History
Criminal history category I, the lowest, applied to 76% of the group, and category VI, the highest, applied to 4%. The military justice system keeps no equivalent field.
Federal Totals for Fiscal Year 2016
Across every guideline, 67,742 people were sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. Their median prison term was 24 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. The 26-month median here was higher than the overall median.
The Commission classes the 25 §2G3.1 cases as Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses. Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 284 people were sentenced under this guideline, and more than 99% pleaded guilty. The next year, 2017, had 26 people and a median of 25.5 months.
Limits of This Post
Fiscal year 2016 began on October 1, 2015 and ended on September 30, 2016. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. The records do not show the facts of any case.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2G3.1 (25), 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)
- §2G3.1 Importing, Mailing, or Transporting Obscene Matter: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2G3.1 Importing, Mailing, or Transporting Obscene Matter: 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.