§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017
Only 2 of the 28 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 in fiscal year 2017 (7%) received a prison term. The median prison term for those 2 people was 30 months, while 25 people (89%) received probation only. All 28 pleaded guilty.
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In brief: Only 2 of the 28 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 in fiscal year 2017 (7%) received a prison term. The median prison term for those 2 people was 30 months, while 25 people (89%) received probation only. All 28 pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 28 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.
A Median Built on 2 Prison Sentences
In fiscal year 2017, the U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 28 people sentenced in federal court with §2N2.1 as the primary guideline. Prison terms went to 2 of them (7%). Probation only went to 25 (89%).
The median prison term of 30 months is therefore based on just 2 sentences. A quarter received 39 months or more, and a quarter received 21 months or less. A median from a group this small describes those 2 cases and should not be read as a typical term.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 15% of people were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 4 months.
Fines Were the Most Common Financial Order
A fine was ordered for 17 people (61%). Restitution was ordered for 1 (4%).
Supervised release after prison applied to the 2 people (7%) who were sentenced to prison. Their median supervised release term was 30 months.
Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
The guideline range is the sentencing range the court calculates for a case. In fiscal year 2017, 25 of the 28 sentences (89%) were within the range. Above the range were 2 (7%), and 1 (4%) was below the range at the government's request.
None (0%) was below the range without a government request. Across all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2N2.1, 93% were within the range. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017, under every guideline, the figure was 49%.
Pleas and Plea Agreements
Every one of the 28 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 96% had a written plea agreement, and 4% were straight pleas with no agreement.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 28 people (0%). The Commission's data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it.
About the Guideline and the Year
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 classifies the cases as Food and Drug.
Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. In criminal history, 96% 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 Nearby Years
In fiscal year 2016, 43 people were sentenced under §2N2.1, the median prison term was 1 month, and 95% of sentences were within the range. In fiscal year 2018, 28 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 2.5 months, and 93% were within the range.
The median of 30 months in fiscal year 2017 is higher than both neighboring years and higher than the 24 months for everyone sentenced in federal court that year. The table below shows how much the median moves from year to year for this guideline. With counts this small, one year is not a trend.
| 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% |
Limits of This Data
The records do not show which product, statute, or conduct was involved in any case. They also do not explain why most people received probation and a few received long prison terms.
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 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2N2.1 (28), 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 2016 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (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.