§2H3.3 Obstructing Correspondence: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025
Most people sentenced under §2H3.3 did not go to prison. Of 53 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 44 (83%) received probation only and 5 (9%) received a prison term. All 53 pleaded guilty.
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In brief: Most people sentenced under §2H3.3 did not go to prison. Of 53 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 44 (83%) received probation only and 5 (9%) received a prison term. All 53 pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 53 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 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.
Probation Was the Usual Sentence
Guideline §2H3.3 is titled "Obstructing Correspondence" in the Guidelines Manual. From fiscal year 2016 through fiscal year 2025, 53 people were sentenced in federal court with this as the primary guideline. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was the sentence for 44 of the 53 (83%). A prison term went to 5 (9%). The Commission lists these cases under the offense type Individual Rights.
Prison Terms Were Short
For the 5 people sent to prison, the median prison term was 0.5 months. A quarter received 6 months or more, and a quarter received 0 months or less.
With only 5 people in the prison group, these medians describe a handful of sentences. They are terms imposed, not time served.
Every Case Ended in a Plea
All 53 (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Because there were no trials, the records offer no comparison between plea sentences and trial sentences.
Among the guilty pleas, 79% had a written plea agreement and 21% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Sentences Matched the Guideline Range
For 51 of the 53 people (96%), the sentence was within the guideline range. Another 2 (4%) were below the range without a government request. None were below the range at the government's request, and none were above the range.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 people.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 4 people (8%), with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 16 (30%), and restitution for 4 (8%).
On criminal history, 92% were in the lowest criminal history category I and 0% were in the highest, category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Year-by-Year Figures
Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 17 people with a median prison term of 6 months. Fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 36 people with a median prison term of 0.2 months. The later period had more people sentenced and shorter prison terms at the median.
Each fiscal year in the table had between 2 and 11 people, and the most in one year was 11, in fiscal year 2022. The yearly table shows "n/a" for several years. That marks years in which the Commission data had no median to report. The records cannot show whether any law or policy change played a part.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 6 | 7.6 months | 6 of 6 |
| 2017 | 2 | n/a | 2 of 2 |
| 2018 | 6 | 6 months | 6 of 6 |
| 2019 | 3 | 0 months | 3 of 3 |
| 2020 | 4 | 0.5 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2021 | 5 | n/a | 5 of 5 |
| 2022 | 11 | n/a | 100% |
| 2023 | 6 | n/a | 6 of 6 |
| 2024 | 3 | n/a | 3 of 3 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 months | 7 of 7 |
Limits of the Data
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so only federal numbers appear here. The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are missing.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2H3.3 (53), from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's 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)
- §2H1.1 Offenses Involving Individual Rights: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2H4.1 Peonage, Involuntary Servitude, and Slave Trade: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2H2.1 Obstructing an Election or Registration: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2H3.1 Interception of Communications: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- 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.