§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018
In fiscal year 2018, 26 of the 28 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 (93%) received a sentence within the guideline range. Prison went to 4 people (14%), with a median prison term of 2.5 months, and 24 (86%) received probation only.
· Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With A › §2N2.1: FY2018
In brief: In fiscal year 2018, 26 of the 28 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 (93%) received a sentence within the guideline range. Prison went to 4 people (14%), with a median prison term of 2.5 months, and 24 (86%) received probation only.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 28 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018. 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.
Sentences Within the Guideline Range
The guideline range is the sentencing range a court calculates before it imposes a sentence. In fiscal year 2018, 26 of the 28 sentences under §2N2.1 (93%) were within that range. One sentence (4%) was below the range without a government request, and 1 (4%) was above it.
None of the sentences was below the range at the government's request. The within-range rate of 93% matches the 93% for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018, under every guideline, it was 51%.
Probation Only for 24 People
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 28 people in fiscal year 2018 whose primary guideline was §2N2.1. Of them, 24 (86%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The other 4 people (14%) were sentenced to prison. The median prison term was 2.5 months. A quarter received 8.2 months or more, and a quarter received 1.8 months or less.
Supervised release followed prison for 4 people (14%), and the median term was 12 months.
Fines Were Common, Restitution Was Not
A fine was ordered for 16 people (57%), and restitution was ordered for 1 (4%). In a group where most sentences were probation, the fine was the main financial penalty recorded in this data.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 28 people (0%). In criminal history, 86% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Everyone Pleaded Guilty
All 28 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Of the guilty pleas, 96% had a written plea agreement, and 4% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The Commission's files include only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals do not appear, so these numbers cannot show how many charged cases ended another way.
The Guideline and Fiscal Year 2018
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 files these cases under the offense type Food and Drug.
Fiscal year 2018 ran from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. Prison terms in the data are the terms imposed, not time served.
Neighboring Years and the Full Period
In fiscal year 2017, 28 people were sentenced under §2N2.1, and the median prison term was 30 months. In fiscal year 2019, 28 people were sentenced, and the median prison term was 9 months. The median of 2.5 months in fiscal year 2018 is lower than both.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the Commission counted 264 people under this guideline. Of them, 15% went to prison, 98% pleaded guilty, and the median prison term was 4 months. Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 totaled 69,425 people, with a median prison term of 24 months. The yearly table follows.
| 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 a Small Count Cannot Show
A median taken from 4 prison sentences can change a lot with one case, so one year is not a trend. The records do not show what any case involved or why a court chose probation or prison.
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 2018 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 2017 (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 2019 (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.