> ## 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 2017 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or-fy2017/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:29:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:29:52.000Z - Description: All 22 people sentenced under guideline §2Q1.2 in fiscal year 2017 pleaded guilty, and none went to trial. Of the 22, 11 (50%) received a prison term, with a median of 19 months, and 8 (36%) received probation only. - 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: FY2017 **In brief:** All 22 people sentenced under guideline §2Q1.2 in fiscal year 2017 pleaded guilty, and none went to trial. Of the 22, 11 (50%) received a prison term, with a median of 19 months, and 8 (36%) received probation only. 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 22 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017\. 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/). ## Every Case Ended in a Guilty Plea The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 22 people in fiscal year 2017 whose primary guideline was §2Q1.2\. All 22 (100%) pleaded guilty. No one was convicted after a trial, and every person who pleaded guilty had a written plea agreement. No one in this group faced a mandatory minimum prison term. The Commission classes all 22 cases as Environmental offenses. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, guilty pleas under this guideline were 97%, so the 2017 rate was slightly higher. ## Prison, Probation, and the 19-Month Median A total of 11 people (50%) received a prison term. Another 8 (36%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 19 months. A quarter received 22.5 months or more, and a quarter received 7 months or less. The gap between those figures is wide, so the middle value describes the group only loosely. The prior year, 2016, had a median prison term of 12 months, and the next year, 2018, had 9 months. The median in 2017 was higher than both. With groups of 22 to 26 people, the records do not support calling that 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% | ## Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range The sentence was within the guideline range for 6 people (27%). It was below the range at the government's request for 8 (36%), and below the range without a government request for 8 (36%). No sentence was above the range. Within-range sentences were 24% in 2016 and 35% in 2018, and 37% across all years for this guideline. For everyone sentenced in federal court in 2017, under any guideline, the share was 49%. ## Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution Supervised release after prison was ordered for 11 people (50%), with a median term of 24 months. A fine was ordered for 7 (32%), and restitution for 5 (23%). A total of 77% were in criminal history category I, the lowest. None were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. ## How This Compares With Federal Sentencing Overall The Commission counted 66,873 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 across every guideline. Their median prison term was 24 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 321 people were sentenced under §2Q1.2\. Of those, 35% were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 3.5 months. ## Limits of This Data The guideline is titled "Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides; Recordkeeping, Tampering, and Falsification; Unlawfully Transporting Hazardous Materials in Commerce." The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count, so these numbers do not describe every charge a person faced. Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017\. The data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served. There is no close court-martial counterpart 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 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q1.2 (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](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 2016](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or-fy2016/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [§2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-2-mishandling-of-hazardous-or-toxic-substances-or-fy2018/) (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.