§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024
In fiscal year 2024, 1 of the 22 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 (5%) received a prison term of 18 months. The other 21 (95%) received probation only. All 22 pleaded guilty, and 100% were in the lowest criminal history category.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2024, 1 of the 22 people sentenced under guideline §2N2.1 (5%) received a prison term of 18 months. The other 21 (95%) received probation only. All 22 pleaded guilty, and 100% were in the lowest criminal history category.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 22 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024. 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.
One Prison Sentence Among 22 People
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 22 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024 whose primary guideline was §2N2.1. Only 1 (5%) was sentenced to prison. The other 21 (95%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term was 18 months, and a quarter received 18 months or more and a quarter received 18 months or less. Those figures are all the same number because they come from a single sentence. The median here is that one term and not a measure of a group.
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.
Everyone Pleaded Guilty With an Agreement
All 22 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Each guilty plea (100%) had a written plea agreement, and 0% were straight pleas with no agreement.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 22 people (0%). The Commission's data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced. Anyone acquitted, and any dismissed case, is not counted.
Fines Without Restitution
A fine was ordered for 14 of the 22 people (64%). Restitution was ordered for 0 (0%).
Supervised release after prison applied to the 1 person (5%) sentenced to prison, and the term was 12 months. In criminal history, 100% were in the lowest category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Almost All Sentences Were Within the Guideline Range
Within the guideline range were 21 of the 22 sentences (95%). One sentence (5%) was above the range. None was below the range, whether at the government's request or without it.
The 95% is about the same as the 93% for all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under §2N2.1. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024, under every guideline, the share within the range was 46%.
What §2N2.1 Is Called in the Manual
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual lists §2N2.1 as "Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product." For these 22 cases, the Commission's offense type is Food and Drug.
Fiscal year 2024 ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. Prison terms in the data are the terms imposed, not time served.
The Years Before and After
In fiscal year 2023, 25 people were sentenced under §2N2.1, and the median prison term was 0.5 months. In fiscal year 2025, 26 people were sentenced, and the table lists the median prison term as n/a. The 18 months in fiscal year 2024 is higher than the 0.5 months in fiscal year 2023.
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024, under every guideline, totaled 61,678 people. Their median prison term was 30 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. The yearly table is below.
| 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
A single prison sentence cannot show a pattern, and the records say nothing about what that case involved or why the court chose that term. They also say nothing about why the others received probation.
This guideline has no close court-martial counterpart in the approved crosswalk, so the post stays with federal figures.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2N2.1 (22), 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 2023 (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 2025 (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.