§2J1.6 Failure to Appear by Defendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2025
All 29 people sentenced under guideline §2J1.6 in fiscal year 2025 received a prison term, with a median of 12 months. A mandatory minimum applied to 4 of them (14%), and 2 were convicted after a trial.
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In brief: All 29 people sentenced under guideline §2J1.6 in fiscal year 2025 received a prison term, with a median of 12 months. A mandatory minimum applied to 4 of them (14%), and 2 were convicted after a trial.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 29 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 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.
Mandatory Minimums Applied More Often in 2025
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 29 people in fiscal year 2025 whose primary guideline was §2J1.6, "Failure to Appear by Defendant." A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 4 of the 29 (14%). A mandatory minimum is a term set in law that a court generally must impose.
The group is small, and 4 people is too few to say whether such cases are becoming more common. The records do not show why the minimum applied in these cases.
Prison Terms
All 29 people (100%) received a prison term. The median was 12 months. A quarter received 18 months or more, and a quarter received 8 months or less.
The previous year, 2024, also had a median of 12 months. This is the last year in the data, so there is no later year to compare. The table lists every year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 41 | 12 months | 83% |
| 2017 | 40 | 13.5 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 30 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 34 | 13.7 months | 94% |
| 2020 | 24 | 15 months | 92% |
| 2021 | 24 | 13.5 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 27 | 10 months | 96% |
| 2023 | 31 | 12 months | 97% |
| 2024 | 30 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 29 | 12 months | 93% |
Trials and Guilty Pleas
A total of 27 people (93%) pleaded guilty, and 2 were convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 11 months. After a trial it was 40 months, based on 2 people. A group of 2 is too small to show how pleas and trials differ.
Among those who pleaded guilty, 59% had a written plea agreement, and 41% pleaded guilty with no agreement.
Within and Below the Range
For 19 people (66%), the sentence was within the guideline range. For 3 (10%), it was below the range at the government's request, and for 6 (21%), it was below the range without a government request. For 1 (3%), it was above the range.
The within-range share was 47% in 2024. It was 61% across all years for this guideline and 51% across all federal cases in 2025.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
Of the 29 people, 26 (90%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 36 months. Fines applied to 2 people (7%), and restitution applied to 4 (14%).
Criminal History
Criminal history category I, the lowest, covered 21% of the group. Category VI, the highest, covered 10%. Courts-martial records do not include this measure.
All Federal Sentencing in 2025
Across every guideline, 66,662 people were sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2025. Their median prison term was 24 months, and 98% pleaded guilty. The 12-month median here was lower than that.
Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 310 people were sentenced under §2J1.6, and 98% were sent to prison. The Commission classes these cases as Administration of Justice offenses.
Limits
Federal fiscal year 2025 covers October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. The count leaves out acquittals and dismissals. Each prison term shown was imposed by a court and may differ from time actually served.
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2J1.6 (29), 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)
- §2J1.6 Failure to Appear by Defendant: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2J1.6 Failure to Appear by Defendant: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024 (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.