§2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
All 49 people sentenced under guideline §2Q1.2 in fiscal year 2022 pleaded guilty. Of the 49, 30 (61%) received probation only and 15 (31%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 2.8 months.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesti › §2Q1.2: FY2022
In brief: All 49 people sentenced under guideline §2Q1.2 in fiscal year 2022 pleaded guilty. Of the 49, 30 (61%) received probation only and 15 (31%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 2.8 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 49 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022. 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.
How the 49 Cases Were Sentenced
In fiscal year 2022, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 49 people whose primary guideline was §2Q1.2. Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was the sentence for 30 (61%). A prison term was the sentence for 15 (31%).
All 49 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. Among them, 98% had a written plea agreement, and 2% pleaded guilty without one.
The Median Prison Term of 2.8 Months
For the 15 people sent to prison, the median prison term was 2.8 months. A quarter received 8 months or more, and a quarter received 2 months or less.
The median was 0.2 months in 2021 and 4.4 months in 2023. It was 3.5 months across all years for this guideline. Medians from groups this small can change from year to year without showing any pattern. The records here cannot show whether any single year reflects a lasting change.
| 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% |
Restitution More Often Than Fines
Restitution was ordered for 26 people (53%), and a fine was ordered for 15 (31%). Supervised release after prison was ordered for 12 people (24%), and the median term was 30 months.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied to anyone in the group. A mandatory minimum is a prison term set by statute that a judge must impose in most cases.
Position Against the Guideline Range
The Commission had range information for 48 of the 49 people. For 23 of them (48%), the sentence was within the guideline range. For 14 (29%), it was below the range at the government's request, and for 11 (23%), it was below the range without a government request. None was above the range.
The within-range share was 57% in 2021 and 32% in 2023. Across all federal cases in 2022 it was 42%.
Criminal History
In criminal history category I, the lowest, were 76% of the group, and 0% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so no comparison with military cases is possible on this point.
The Wider Federal Caseload in 2022
Across every guideline, 64,142 people were sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022. Their median prison term was 30 months, which is higher than the 2.8 months here. Guilty pleas were 97% overall.
Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 321 people were sentenced under §2Q1.2. Of those, 35% were sent to prison, and 97% pleaded guilty.
Naming the Guideline and Its Limits
The Guidelines Manual titles §2Q1.2 "Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides; Recordkeeping, Tampering, and Falsification; Unlawfully Transporting Hazardous Materials in Commerce." The Commission's offense type for these cases is Environmental.
Fiscal year 2022 ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022. Acquittals and dismissals are not in this data. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q1.2 (49), 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)
- §2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2Q1.2 Mishandling of Hazardous or Toxic Substances or Pesticides: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023 (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.