> ## 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. # §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-3-mishandling-of-other-environmental-pollutants-fy2017/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:57:38.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:57:38.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2017, 34 people were sentenced in federal court with §2Q1.3 as the primary guideline. Of those, 22 (65%) received probation only, and 7 (21%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 9 months. This was the largest single-year group for this guideline from fiscal year 2016 to - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-3-mishandling-of-other-environmental-pollutants/) › §2Q1.3: FY2017 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2017, 34 people were sentenced in federal court with §2Q1.3 as the primary guideline. Of those, 22 (65%) received probation only, and 7 (21%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 9 months. This was the largest single-year group for this guideline from fiscal year 2016 to 2025. 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 34 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/). ## Who Was Sentenced Under §2Q1.3 in Fiscal Year 2017? Guideline §2Q1.3 is titled "Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants; Recordkeeping, Tampering, and Falsification" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 34 people in fiscal year 2017 whose primary guideline was §2Q1.3\. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count. The Commission classifies all 34 of these cases under the offense type Environmental. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017\. The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are not in it. ## Probation Was the Most Common Sentence Most people in this group did not go to prison. 22 of the 34 (65%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. 7 (21%) received a prison term. Among the 7 who went to prison, the median prison term was 9 months. A quarter received 27 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not the time actually served. Supervised release after prison was ordered for 7 people (21%), with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 15 (44%), and restitution for 5 (15%). ## Guilty Pleas, Trials, and Mandatory Minimums 30 of the 34 (88%) pleaded guilty, and 4 were convicted after a trial. Among guilty pleas, 100% had a written plea agreement. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 9 months. After a trial it was 15 months, but that figure rests on only 2 people who were convicted at trial and sent to prison. A median from 2 people shows very little. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 34 people with that information recorded (0%). No sentence in this group was driven by a statutory floor. ## How Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range The Commission recorded the position of the sentence against the guideline range for 33 people. 13 sentences (39%) were within the range. 10 (30%) were below the range at the government's request, and 10 (30%) were below the range without a government request. None was above the range. Criminal history was mostly in the lowest category: 79% were in category I and 6% were in category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so that measure has no military counterpart. ## Context From Other Years and All Guidelines Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 163 people were sentenced under §2Q1.3\. Of those, 26% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 5 months, guilty pleas were 93%, and sentences within the guideline range were 31%. Fiscal year 2017 had a higher share of people sent to prison than the all-years figure, and a higher median prison term. The previous fiscal year, 2016, had 24 people and a median prison term of 2.5 months. The next fiscal year, 2018, had 18 people and a median prison term of 1 months. The yearly counts are small, so one year's median should not be read as a trend. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2017, 66,873 people were sentenced, with a median prison term of 24 months, guilty pleas of 97%, and sentences within the guideline range of 49%. Sentences under §2Q1.3 were within the range less often than that. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 24 | 2.5 months | 92% | | 2017 | 34 | 9 months | 88% | | 2018 | 18 | 1 months | 94% | | 2019 | 20 | 15 months | 90% | | 2020 | 13 | 2 months | 100% | | 2021 | 11 | 7.5 months | 100% | | 2022 | 13 | 11.4 months | 100% | | 2023 | 9 | 18 months | 7 of 9 | | 2024 | 10 | 12 months | 100% | | 2025 | 11 | 0 months | 100% | ## What These Numbers Cannot Show 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 also do not show the facts of any case, or why a judge chose a sentence. They show only how many people were sentenced and how those sentences were recorded. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q1.3 (34), 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) - [§2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-3-mishandling-of-other-environmental-pollutants/) (overview) - [§2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-3-mishandling-of-other-environmental-pollutants-fy2016/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [§2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2q1-3-mishandling-of-other-environmental-pollutants-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.