§2Q2.1 Offenses Involving Fish, Wildlife, and Plants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 84 people were sentenced in federal court under §2Q2.1, "Offenses Involving Fish, Wildlife, and Plants," as the primary guideline. Probation only was the most common result: 52 people (62%). Of the 84, 20 (24%) received prison, with a median prison term of 10 months.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 84 people were sentenced in federal court under §2Q2.1, "Offenses Involving Fish, Wildlife, and Plants," as the primary guideline. Probation only was the most common result: 52 people (62%). Of the 84, 20 (24%) received prison, with a median prison term of 10 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 84 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 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.
Probation Was More Common Than Prison in 2016
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 84 people whose most serious count was sentenced under this guideline in fiscal year 2016. Of those, 52 (62%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. Another 20 (24%) received a prison term.
A fine was ordered for 49 (58%), and restitution for 13 (15%). Across all fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 32% of the 798 people sentenced under this guideline went to prison, so 2016 had a smaller share sent to prison than the all-years total.
How Long Were the Prison Terms?
Among the 20 people sent to prison, the median prison term was 10 months. A quarter received 17.2 months or more, and a quarter received 5.2 months or less.
That median is higher than the all-years median of 6 months for this guideline. It is also lower than the median of 24 months for everyone sentenced in federal court in 2016 under every guideline.
A total of 18 (21%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. No one had a mandatory minimum prison term recorded.
Guilty Pleas and the Few Trials
A total of 78 of 84 (93%) pleaded guilty, and 6 were convicted after a trial. Across all guidelines in 2016, 97% pleaded guilty.
The median prison term was 12 months after a guilty plea and 5 months after a trial. The trial figure is based on 2 people, so it cannot support any conclusion about trials.
Among guilty pleas, 95% had a written plea agreement, and 4% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Sentences Within and Below the Guideline Range
Within the advisory guideline range: 49% (41). Below the range at the government's request: 24% (20). Below the range without a government request: 27% (23). Above the range: 0% (0).
The share within the range was about the same as the 49% for all federal cases in 2016. Criminal history was in the lowest category, category I, for 88% of the 84 people, and in the highest, category VI, for 0%. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
What Kind of Cases Are in This Group?
The Commission classifies all 84 cases as the offense type Environmental. That is the Commission's category, and the sheet lists no other offense type for these cases.
The next year, 2017, had 63 people, a median prison term of 5.9 months, and 38% sentenced within the range. The table below lists every year from 2016 to 2025.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 84 | 10 months | 93% |
| 2017 | 63 | 5.9 months | 100% |
| 2018 | 121 | 6 months | more than 99% |
| 2019 | 82 | 5.5 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 80 | 6 months | 99% |
| 2021 | 73 | 6 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 69 | 7.7 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 79 | 10 months | 97% |
| 2024 | 57 | 6 months | 98% |
| 2025 | 90 | 4.4 months | 99% |
What the Records Do Not Show
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it, and prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served. Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.
Counts of 84 people and 20 prison terms are small, so a single year is not a trend. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q2.1 (84), 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)
- §2Q2.1 Offenses Involving Fish, Wildlife, and Plants: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2Q2.1 Offenses Involving Fish, Wildlife, and Plants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (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.