§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 36 of the 43 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 (84%) received probation only, and 7 (16%) received a prison term. The median prison term among those 7 was 1 month. All 43 pleaded guilty.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 36 of the 43 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 (84%) received probation only, and 7 (16%) received a prison term. The median prison term among those 7 was 1 month. All 43 pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 43 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.
Most Sentences Were Probation Only
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 43 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary guideline was §2N2.1. Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was the sentence for 36 of them (84%).
A prison term went to 7 people (16%). The median prison term among those 7 was 1 month. A quarter received 4.5 months or more, and a quarter received 0 months or less.
Prison terms here are the terms the court imposed, not the time a person served. For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 15% were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 4 months.
What §2N2.1 Covers
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2N2.1 "Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product." The Commission groups these cases under the offense type Food and Drug.
A case is counted under §2N2.1 only when it was the primary guideline, the one that set the offense level for the most serious count. Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.
Sentences Almost Always Matched the Guideline Range
The Commission had the sentence position for all 43 people. Within the guideline range were 41 sentences (95%). One sentence (2%) was below the range at the government's request, and 1 (2%) was above the range.
This is a much higher within-range rate than the 49% for everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 under every guideline. It is about the same as the 93% for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2N2.1.
Guilty Pleas and Plea Agreements
All 43 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Written plea agreements covered 95% of the guilty pleas, and 5% were straight pleas with no agreement.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 43 people, a count of 0 (0%). The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so it does not include dismissals or acquittals.
Fines, Restitution, and Supervised Release
A fine was ordered for 16 people (37%), and restitution for 3 (7%). Fines were more common than prison terms in this group.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 4 people (9%), with a median term of 12 months. In criminal history, 88% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The Largest Yearly Count in the Table
The 43 people in fiscal year 2016 were the largest yearly count for this guideline in the table below. In fiscal year 2017, the count was 28 people, the median prison term was 30 months, and 89% of sentences were within the range.
The median prison term for this guideline changed a great deal from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2017, and the records cannot show why. Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016, under every guideline, totaled 67,742 people, with a median prison term of 24 months and 97% guilty pleas.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 43 | 1 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 28 | 30 months | 100% |
| 2018 | 28 | 2.5 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 28 | 9 months | 96% |
| 2020 | 17 | 36 months | 88% |
| 2021 | 26 | 1.2 months | 92% |
| 2022 | 21 | 4 months | 95% |
| 2023 | 25 | 0.5 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 22 | 18 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 26 | n/a | 100% |
What These Numbers Leave Out
The records do not show what any case involved, which product or statute was at issue, or why a court chose probation or prison. They also do not include people who were acquitted.
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2N2.1 (43), 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)
- §2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: 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.