§2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020
All 13 people sentenced in fiscal year 2020 with §2Q1.3 as the primary guideline pleaded guilty. 5 (38%) received a prison term, with a median of 2 months, and 6 (46%) received probation only. With 13 people in the group, the figures describe a small number of cases.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants › §2Q1.3: FY2020
In brief: All 13 people sentenced in fiscal year 2020 with §2Q1.3 as the primary guideline pleaded guilty. 5 (38%) received a prison term, with a median of 2 months, and 6 (46%) received probation only. With 13 people in the group, the figures describe a small number of cases.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 13 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020. 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.
Every Case Ended in a Guilty Plea
13 of 13 people (100%) in this group pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Because there were no trial convictions, the data has no trial prison term to report for this year.
Among the guilty pleas, 92% had a written plea agreement, and 8% were straight pleas with no agreement. In the Commission's data, a straight plea is a guilty plea entered without a written agreement with the government.
These people are everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 whose primary guideline was §2Q1.3. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data.
Prison Terms and Probation
Guideline §2Q1.3 is titled "Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants; Recordkeeping, Tampering, and Falsification" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The Commission classifies all 13 cases under the offense type Environmental.
5 of the 13 (38%) received a prison term, and 6 (46%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term among those sent to prison was 2 months. A quarter received 4 months or more, and a quarter received 0.5 months or less.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 3 people (23%), with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 7 (54%), and restitution for 2 (15%).
Mandatory Minimums and the Guideline Range
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 12 people with that information recorded (0%).
For the guideline range, the Commission had the information for all 13. 6 sentences (46%) were within the range. 5 (38%) were below the range at the government's request, and 2 (15%) were below the range without a government request. None was above the range.
Sentences within the range were 46% here and 50% for everyone sentenced in fiscal year 2020 under every guideline. Those figures are close.
Criminal History
92% of the group were in the lowest criminal history category, and 0% were in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so this measure has no military counterpart.
How This Year Compares With Others
The previous fiscal year, 2019, had 20 people under §2Q1.3 and a median prison term of 15 months. The next fiscal year, 2021, had 11 people and a median prison term of 7.5 months. The yearly table shows every year from 2016 to 2025.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 163 people were sentenced under this guideline. The median prison term was 5 months, guilty pleas were 93%, and 26% were sent to prison. The share sent to prison in fiscal year 2020 was higher than that, and the median prison term was lower.
For all guidelines in fiscal year 2020, 64,565 people were sentenced. The median prison term was 18 months, and guilty pleas were 98%. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020.
| 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 the Records Leave Out
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
The data does not describe the conduct in any case. It also does not show why a prison term or probation was chosen.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2020 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q1.3 (13), 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)
- §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (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.