§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020
Fiscal year 2020 had the smallest count of the fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under guideline §2N2.1: 17 people. Of them, 15 (88%) pleaded guilty and 2 were convicted after a trial. Prison went to 3 people (18%), with a median prison term of 36 months.
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In brief: Fiscal year 2020 had the smallest count of the fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under guideline §2N2.1: 17 people. Of them, 15 (88%) pleaded guilty and 2 were convicted after a trial. Prison went to 3 people (18%), with a median prison term of 36 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 17 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020. 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 Small Group With 2 Trial Convictions
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 17 people sentenced in fiscal year 2020 whose primary guideline was §2N2.1. A guilty plea was entered by 15 of them (88%). Another 2 people were convicted after a trial.
The plea rate of 88% is lower than the 98% for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline. Among the guilty pleas, 100% had a written plea agreement, and 0% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Prison Terms After Pleas and Trials
Of the 17 people, 3 (18%) received a prison term, and 12 (71%) received probation only. The median prison term among the 3 was 36 months, or 3 years. A quarter received 48 months or more, and a quarter received 36 months or less.
After a guilty plea, the median prison term was 60 months. After a trial, it was 36 months, based on 2 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. These groups are very small, and the numbers describe those specific cases. They do not show how a plea or a trial changes a sentence.
Where Sentences Fell Against the Guideline Range
For all 17 people, the Commission had the sentence position. Within the guideline range were 14 sentences (82%). Above the range were 2 (12%), and 1 (6%) was below the range at the government's request.
None was below the range without a government request. For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2N2.1, 93% of sentences were within the range, which is higher than 82%. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020, under every guideline, the figure was 50%.
Mandatory Minimums, Fines, and Supervised Release
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 of the 17 people (6%).
A fine was ordered for 11 people (65%), and restitution for 2 (12%). Supervised release after prison was ordered for 3 people (18%), with a median term of 24 months.
In criminal history, 65% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The Guideline and the Fiscal 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 2020 ran from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. The data counts only convicted and sentenced people, so acquittals and dismissals are not in it.
Compared With the Years Around It
In fiscal year 2019, 28 people were sentenced under §2N2.1, and the median prison term was 9 months. In fiscal year 2021, 26 people were sentenced, and the median prison term was 1.2 months. The 36 months in fiscal year 2020 is higher than both.
For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020, under every guideline, 64,565 people had a median prison term of 18 months. For §2N2.1 across all fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 264 people had a median prison term of 4 months. The table shows each year.
| 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 the Numbers Cannot Explain
With 17 people and 3 prison sentences, one case can change a median by a large amount. The records do not show what the cases involved or why the median differs from year to year.
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 2020 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2N2.1 (17), 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)
- §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 2019 (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 2021 (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.