§2P1.3 Engaging In, Inciting or Attempting to Incite a Riot Involving Persons in a Facility for Official Detention: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 11 people were sentenced under guideline §2P1.3, "Engaging In, Inciting or Attempting to Incite a Riot Involving Persons in a Facility for Official Detention." All 11 pleaded guilty and all 11 were sent to prison, with a median of 89 months. That median is higher than the 47 mon
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2P1.3 Engaging In, Inciting or Attempting to Incite a Riot › §2P1.3: FY2016
In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 11 people were sentenced under guideline §2P1.3, "Engaging In, Inciting or Attempting to Incite a Riot Involving Persons in a Facility for Official Detention." All 11 pleaded guilty and all 11 were sent to prison, with a median of 89 months. That median is higher than the 47 months for all years under this guideline.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 11 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
An 89-Month Median for 11 People
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 11 people in fiscal year 2016 whose primary guideline was §2P1.3. 11 of the 11 (100%) received a prison term, and none received probation only.
The median prison term was 89 months, or 7.4 years. A quarter received 94.5 months or more, and a quarter received 54 months or less. The Commission files these cases under the offense type Prison Offenses.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 26 people were sentenced, and all 26 (100%) were sent to prison. The all-years median is 47 months.
Guilty Pleas and Plea Agreements
All 11 people pleaded guilty, and none were convicted after a trial. Every plea had a written plea agreement. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 11.
The all-years guilty plea rate is also 100%. The rate for everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 under any guideline was 97%.
Guideline Range and Restitution
5 sentences (45%) were within the guideline range, and 6 (55%) were below the range at the government's request. None were below it without a government request, and none were above it.
The all-years share within the range under this guideline is 46%, which is about the same as the 45% in fiscal year 2016. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2016, the figure was 49%.
Restitution was ordered for all 11 people (100%). No fine was ordered.
Criminal History
0% of the 11 people were in the lowest criminal history category, Category I, and 0% were in the highest, Category VI. The sheet does not say where the group fell between those categories.
Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The Yearly Table Has Gaps
The table lists only fiscal years that have data under this guideline: 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, and 2025. Fiscal year 2016 has the largest group, at 11 people. Fiscal years 2023 and 2025 each had 6 people.
Medians in the table are 120 months in fiscal year 2017, 47.5 months in fiscal year 2022, 41 months in fiscal year 2023, and 8 months in fiscal year 2025. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2016, 67,742 people were sentenced, and the median prison term was 24 months. Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 11 | 89 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 1 | 120 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2022 | 2 | 47.5 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2023 | 6 | 41 months | 6 of 6 |
| 2025 | 6 | 8 months | 6 of 6 |
Limits of the Records
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so only federal numbers appear here.
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, and the prison terms are those imposed, not time served. It does not describe individual cases, and one year with 11 people does not show a trend.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2P1.3 (11), 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)
- §2P1.3 Engaging In, Inciting or Attempting to Incite a Riot Involving Persons in a Facility for Official Detention: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- 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.