> ## 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. # §2X4.1 Misprision of Felony: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2x4-1-misprision-of-felony-fy2016/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:24:06.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:24:06.000Z - Description: In fiscal year 2016, 290 people were sentenced in federal court with §2X4.1 as the primary guideline. Of them, 137 (47%) received a prison term and 127 (44%) received probation only. The median prison term was 12 months, and all 290 pleaded guilty. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2X4.1 Misprision of Felony](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2x4-1-misprision-of-felony/) › §2X4.1: FY2016 **In brief:** In fiscal year 2016, 290 people were sentenced in federal court with §2X4.1 as the primary guideline. Of them, 137 (47%) received a prison term and 127 (44%) received probation only. The median prison term was 12 months, and all 290 pleaded guilty. 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 290 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](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/). ## Prison and Probation in Fiscal Year 2016 The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 290 people whose primary sentencing guideline was §2X4.1 in fiscal year 2016\. A prison term went to 137 of them (47%), and probation with no prison or other confinement went to 127 (44%). The median prison term was 12 months. A quarter of those sent to prison received 21 months or more, and a quarter received 4.2 months or less. These are the terms imposed by the court, not time served. Supervised release after prison was ordered for 130 people (45%), with a median term of 12 months. A fine was ordered for 39 people (13%), and restitution for 34 (12%). ## Everyone Pleaded Guilty All 290 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. Because no one went to trial, the data has no trial comparison for this year. Among the guilty pleas, 99% had a written plea agreement, and less than 1% were straight pleas with no agreement. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 290 people with that information recorded (0%). No statutory floor was recorded for any of these cases. ## Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range Range information was recorded for 289 people. A sentence within the range went to 129 (45%). A sentence below the range at the government's request went to 68 (24%), and below the range without a government request to 76 (26%). A sentence above the range went to 16 (6%). The next fiscal year, 2017, had 52% within the range. Across 2016 to 2025, the figure for §2X4.1 was 48%. For all federal cases in fiscal year 2016, it was 49%. ## What the Guideline Covers The Guidelines Manual calls §2X4.1 "Misprision of Felony". The Commission's offense type for all 290 cases is Administration of Justice. In criminal history, 74% of the people were in category I, the lowest, and 2% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. ## Comparison With All Federal Cases and Other Years Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016\. All federal cases that year, under every guideline, totaled 67,742 people. Their median prison term was 24 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. Over 2016 to 2025, §2X4.1 covered 2,122 people. Of them, 54% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 12 months, and 100% pleaded guilty. The table gives each year's count. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 290 | 12 months | 100% | | 2017 | 306 | 12 months | 100% | | 2018 | 234 | 12 months | 100% | | 2019 | 268 | 12 months | 100% | | 2020 | 155 | 12 months | 100% | | 2021 | 173 | 12 months | 100% | | 2022 | 213 | 12 months | 100% | | 2023 | 151 | 10.3 months | 100% | | 2024 | 170 | 12 months | 100% | | 2025 | 162 | 12 months | 100% | ## Limits of the Data The Commission counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are missing. A person charged with misprision whose case was dropped would not appear here. The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart to this guideline, so the post reports federal numbers on their own. The records do not show why one person received probation and another received prison. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2X4.1 (290), 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) - [§2X4.1 Misprision of Felony: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2x4-1-misprision-of-felony/) (overview) - [§2X4.1 Misprision of Felony: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2x4-1-misprision-of-felony-fy2017/) (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.