> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # §2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or-fy2016/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:29:51.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:29:51.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2016, 25 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2Q1.2. Probation only was the more common result: 13 people (52%) received it, while 10 (40%) were sent to prison. Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 12 months. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesti](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or/) › §2Q1.2: FY2016 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2016, 25 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2Q1.2\. Probation only was the more common result: 13 people (52%) received it, while 10 (40%) were sent to prison. Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 12 months. Updated November 4, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025 This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 25 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/). ## Probation Was More Common Than Prison in Fiscal Year 2016 The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 25 people whose primary guideline was §2Q1.2 in fiscal year 2016\. Of those, 13 (52%) were sentenced to probation only, with no prison or other confinement. Another 10 (40%) received a prison term. The guideline is titled "Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides; Recordkeeping, Tampering, and Falsification; Unlawfully Transporting Hazardous Materials in Commerce" in the Guidelines Manual. The Commission classes all 25 of these cases as Environmental offenses. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count. A person could have been convicted of other counts as well. ## How Long Were the Prison Terms? The median prison term for the 10 people sent to prison was 12 months. A quarter of them received 12 months or more, and a quarter received 7.5 months or less. These are the terms imposed by the court. They are not the time actually served. The numbers also describe a small group, so a single case can move a median. ## Guilty Pleas and Trials A total of 23 of the 25 people (92%) pleaded guilty, and 2 were convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 12 months. After a trial it was 29 months, but that figure rests on only 2 people and cannot support a comparison. Every person who pleaded guilty had a written plea agreement. None was a straight plea with no agreement. No one in the group was subject to a mandatory minimum prison term. ## Where the Sentences Fell Against the Guideline Range Only 6 sentences (24%) were within the guideline range. A total of 12 (48%) were below the range at the government's request, and 7 (28%) were below the range without a government request. No sentence was above the range. For all people sentenced under §2Q1.2 across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 37% of sentences were within the range. The 2016 share was lower than that. ## Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution Of the 25 people, 10 (40%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 12 (48%), and restitution for 9 (36%). In the lowest criminal history category I were 88% of the group, and 4% were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. ## Context From Other Years For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the Commission counted 321 people under §2Q1.2\. Of those, 35% were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 3.5 months. Guilty pleas were 97%. Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016, under every guideline, totaled 67,742 people. Their median prison term was 24 months, which is higher than the 12 months here. The next fiscal year, 2017, had 22 people under §2Q1.2 and a median prison term of 19 months. The table below lists every year. Counts of 18 to 54 people are small, so one year should not be read as a trend. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 25 | 12 months | 92% | | 2017 | 22 | 19 months | 100% | | 2018 | 26 | 9 months | 100% | | 2019 | 31 | 12 months | 97% | | 2020 | 18 | 3 months | 94% | | 2021 | 54 | 0.2 months | 96% | | 2022 | 49 | 2.8 months | 100% | | 2023 | 31 | 4.4 months | 97% | | 2024 | 35 | 4.3 months | 100% | | 2025 | 30 | 0.3 months | 87% | ## What the Records Cannot Show Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016\. The Commission data includes only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it. There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. The records do not show the facts of any case or why a judge chose a sentence. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q1.2 (25), 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article) - [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts) - [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method) - [§2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or/) (overview) - [§2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or-fy2017/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-sentences-outside-guideline-range/) - [Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-mandatory-minimum-sentences/) - [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source) - [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.