§2H4.1 Peonage, Involuntary Servitude, and Slave Trade: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017
In fiscal year 2017, 11 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2H4.1, "Peonage, Involuntary Servitude, and Slave Trade." All 11 received a prison term, and the median prison term was 37 months. That median is lower than the 72 months for all 104 people sentenced under this guideline
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2H4.1 Peonage, Involuntary Servitude, and Slave Trade › §2H4.1: FY2017
In brief: In fiscal year 2017, 11 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2H4.1, "Peonage, Involuntary Servitude, and Slave Trade." All 11 received a prison term, and the median prison term was 37 months. That median is lower than the 72 months for all 104 people sentenced under this guideline in fiscal years 2016 to 2025.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 11 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.
What Happened to the 11 People Sentenced in Fiscal Year 2017?
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 11 people whose primary guideline was §2H4.1 in fiscal year 2017. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count. The Commission files the 11 cases under the offense type Individual Rights.
11 of the 11 (100%) were sentenced to prison. None received probation only. The median prison term was 37 months, which is 3.1 years. A quarter of the group received 72 months or more, and a quarter received 27 months or less.
Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it.
Guilty Pleas and the One Trial Conviction
10 of the 11 people (91%) pleaded guilty. 1 person was convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 36.5 months.
The median after a trial was 72 months, but that figure rests on a single person. It cannot be read as a typical trial sentence.
Among the guilty pleas, 100% had a written plea agreement. None were straight pleas with no agreement.
How Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
The sheet has this information for all 11 people. 3 sentences (27%) were within the guideline range. 3 (27%) were below the range at the government's request. 4 (36%) were below the range without a government request. 1 (9%) was above the range.
Sentences below the range, with or without a government request, were more common here than sentences within it. Across all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 39% of sentences were within the range.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 11 people. The count is 0 of 11 (0%).
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 9 | 96 months | 7 of 9 |
| 2017 | 11 | 37 months | 91% |
| 2018 | 8 | 30 months | 8 of 8 |
| 2019 | 7 | 93.5 months | 3 of 7 |
| 2020 | 8 | 114 months | 6 of 8 |
| 2021 | 7 | 111 months | 4 of 7 |
| 2022 | 9 | 64 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2023 | 16 | 65 months | 81% |
| 2024 | 13 | 87 months | 54% |
| 2025 | 16 | 102 months | 50% |
Supervised Release, Restitution, and Criminal History
All 11 people (100%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison. The median term was 36 months.
No fine was ordered. Restitution was ordered for 4 people (36%).
In criminal history, 64% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
How Fiscal Year 2017 Compares With Other Years and Other Guidelines
The yearly table shows between 7 and 16 people sentenced under §2H4.1 in each year. Counts this small move easily from one year to the next. One year's median should not be read as a trend.
The median prison term of 37 months in fiscal year 2017 is lower than the median for all years under this guideline, which is 72 months. Guilty pleas, at 91%, were also more common than the 71% for all years.
For every guideline combined in fiscal year 2017, 66,873 people were sentenced. Their median prison term was 24 months, guilty pleas were 97%, and 49% of sentences were within the guideline range. The median under §2H4.1 was higher than the all-guideline median, and guilty pleas were less common.
What These Numbers Cannot Show
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk. This post reports the federal numbers on their own.
The records give prison terms imposed, not time served. They do not describe the facts of any case or explain why a sentence was set where it was. With 11 people in the year, a single sentence can move the median.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2H4.1 (11), 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)
- §2H4.1 Peonage, Involuntary Servitude, and Slave Trade: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- 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.