§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
In fiscal year 2019, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 28 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1. Of them, 27 (96%) pleaded guilty and 1 was convicted after a trial. Prison went to 2 people (7%), with a median prison term of 9 months.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2019, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 28 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1. Of them, 27 (96%) pleaded guilty and 1 was convicted after a trial. Prison went to 2 people (7%), with a median prison term of 9 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 28 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. 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.
27 Guilty Pleas and 1 Trial Conviction
In fiscal year 2019, 27 of the 28 people sentenced under §2N2.1 (96%) pleaded guilty. One person was convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 100% had a written plea agreement, and 0% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The Commission's data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not included, so the plea rate describes sentenced cases and not every charged case.
Who Went to Prison and for How Long
Prison terms went to 2 of the 28 people (7%), and 25 people (89%) received probation only. The median prison term for the 2 people sent to prison was 9 months.
A quarter received 10.5 months or more, and a quarter received 7.5 months or less. With only 2 prison sentences, the median describes those 2 cases and not a typical term.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for the same 2 people (7%), and the median term was 12 months.
Within the Range in 27 of 28 Cases
Within the guideline range were 27 of the 28 sentences (96%). One sentence (4%) was below the range without a government request. None was below the range at the government's request, and none (0%) was above the range.
That within-range rate is higher than the 93% for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2N2.1. It is also higher than the 51% for everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019, under every guideline.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 17 people (61%), and restitution for 1 (4%). 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, so this measure exists only on the federal side.
What §2N2.1 Is
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's offense type for these cases is Food and Drug.
Fiscal year 2019 ran from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019. A case appears under this guideline when it was the primary guideline, which means it set the offense level for the most serious count.
Years Before and After
In fiscal year 2018, 28 people were sentenced under §2N2.1, the median prison term was 2.5 months, and 93% of sentences were within the range. In fiscal year 2020, 17 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 36 months, and 82% were within the range.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the Commission counted 264 people under this guideline, with 15% sent to prison and a median prison term of 4 months. Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 totaled 76,538 people, with a median prison term of 21 months. The table gives the yearly counts and medians.
| 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 One Year of Data
The medians for this guideline move a great deal from year to year because few people are sentenced to prison under it. The records do not show why.
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 2019 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 2018 (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 2020 (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.