§2N2.1 Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025
Probation only was the most common sentence under §2N2.1: 214 of 264 people (81%) in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Prison went to 39 people (15%), with a median of 4 months. Of all sentences, 245 (93%) were within the guideline range.
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In brief: Probation only was the most common sentence under §2N2.1: 214 of 264 people (81%) in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Prison went to 39 people (15%), with a median of 4 months. Of all sentences, 245 (93%) were within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 264 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 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.
Probation Was the Usual Sentence
Of the 264 people sentenced, 214 (81%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. A prison term went to 39 (15%).
Among those 39, the median prison term was 4 months. A quarter received 9 months or more, and a quarter received 0.5 months or less. These are terms imposed, not time served.
What Section 2N2.1 Covers
The Manual's title is "Violations of Statutes and Regulations Dealing With Any Food, Drug, Biological Product, Device, Cosmetic, or Agricultural Product." The Sentencing Commission files these cases under Food and Drug.
A person is counted here when §2N2.1 was the primary guideline, the one for the most serious count. Only convicted and sentenced people are in the data.
Nearly All Sentences Were Within the Range
Within the guideline range were 245 sentences (93%). Above the range were 10 (4%). Below the range at the government's request were 6 (2%), and below the range without a request were 3 (1%).
The within-range share is high, and the records do not say why. They also do not show how the range was calculated in any single case.
Pleas, Fines, and Release
Guilty pleas were entered by 258 people (98%), and 6 were convicted after a trial. Of those who pleaded guilty, 98% had a written plea agreement and 2% were straight pleas.
A fine was ordered for 143 people (54%). Restitution was ordered for 19 (7%). Supervised release after prison was ordered for 26 people (10%), with a median term of 12 months. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 person, which is less than 1%.
Trials and Prison Terms
The median prison term was 3 months after a guilty plea and 16.7 months after a trial. The trial figure is based on 5 people, which is too few for a firm comparison.
Criminal history was low: 90% were in the lowest criminal history category I, and 0% were in the highest, VI.
Yearly Medians Moved Widely
The median prison term was 3 months in fiscal years 2016 to 2019, covering 127 people, and 5 months in fiscal years 2020 to 2025, covering 137 people.
The yearly table is uneven. The median was 1 month in 2016, 30 months in 2017, 36 months in 2020, 0.5 months in 2023, and 18 months in 2024. The 2025 median is shown as n/a. Because few people in each year went to prison (the counts sentenced were 43 in 2016 and 17 in 2020), a few sentences can change a yearly median. The records cannot give reasons.
| 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 Is Not Shown
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so only federal numbers appear. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2N2.1 (264), from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's 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)
- §2N1.1 Tampering or Attempting to Tamper Involving Risk of Death or Bodily Injury: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- 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.