Federal Other Offense Sentences in the Eastern District of North Carolina, FY2016–2025
Of the 682 people sentenced under the Sentencing Commission's "Other" offense type in the Eastern District of North Carolina in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 562 (82%) received probation only and 77 (11%) received a prison term. The median prison term among those 77 was 0.5 months. A fine was ordered f
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In brief: Of the 682 people sentenced under the Sentencing Commission's "Other" offense type in the Eastern District of North Carolina in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 562 (82%) received probation only and 77 (11%) received a prison term. The median prison term among those 77 was 0.5 months. A fine was ordered for 637 people (93%).
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 682 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 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 and Fines Were the Usual Sentence
Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, was the sentence for 562 of the 682 people (82%). Prison terms went to 77 people (11%).
A fine was ordered for 637 people (93%), and restitution for 17 (2%). Supervised release after prison was ordered for 34 people (5%), with a median term of 12 months.
Across all 94 federal districts, this offense type covers 9,918 people. In those districts, 38% were sent to prison, which is a higher share than in this district.
Very Short Prison Terms
The median prison term among the 77 people sent to prison was 0.5 months. A quarter received 2 months or more, and a quarter received 0.2 months or less.
The national median for this offense type was 0.2 months. For all offenses in this district the median was 60 months, so the terms in these cases are shorter than for the district as a whole. These are terms imposed, not time served.
What Is in the "Other" Category
"Other" is a catch-all offense type. It gathers cases whose primary guideline does not belong to a named category, so it does not describe one kind of offense.
The most common primary guideline here was §2D2.2 (Acquiring a Controlled Substance by Forgery, Fraud, Deception, or Subterfuge), with 6 people. Next were §2X5.2 (Class A Misdemeanors (Not Covered by Another Specific Offense Guideline)) with 3, §2A5.2 (Interference with Flight Crew Member or Flight Attendant) with 2, and §2X3.1 (Accessory After the Fact) with 1.
The records list only the most common guidelines, and that list does not account for every case. These cases were 9% of the 7,801 people sentenced in the district.
Nearly Every Sentence Was Within the Range
The guideline range is the range calculated under the Commission's guidelines. The records list the range position for 420 people. Sentences were within it for 99% (415).
Below the range at the government's request was 1 case, below it without a government request was 3, and above the range was 1, each less than 1%. Across all 94 districts, 90% were within the range. For all offenses in this district, the figure was 56%.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 41 people with that information recorded.
Pleas and Criminal History
Guilty pleas were more than 99% of the cases (679), and 3 people were convicted after a trial. Of the guilty pleas, 83% were straight pleas with no agreement, and 3% had a written plea agreement.
In the Commission's data, 96% were in the lowest criminal history category and less than 1% in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Counts by Fiscal Year
Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 169 people, and fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 513. The yearly count rose in fiscal years 2023, 2024, and 2025 to 93, 147, and 192 people. The records cannot show why.
The yearly median prison term stays between 0.2 months and 4 months. Each fiscal year runs from October 1 through the end of September.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 39 | 2 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 54 | 0.2 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 41 | 1 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 35 | 0.2 months | 97% |
| 2020 | 33 | 0.2 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 27 | 4 months | 96% |
| 2022 | 21 | 2.7 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 93 | 0.3 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 147 | 0.2 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 192 | 1 months | 100% |
Installations and Limits
Camp Lejeune, Fort Bragg, Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, and Seymour Johnson AFB are in this district. Their courts-martial are tried in military courts, not here.
Only convicted and sentenced people are counted. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in the Eastern District of North Carolina (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "N Carolina East") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "Other" (682). Offense types are the Commission's OFFGUIDE categories.
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)
- Federal Sentences in the Eastern District of North Carolina, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the Eastern District of North Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Firearms Sentences in the Eastern District of North Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement Sentences in the Eastern District of North Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the Eastern District of North Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- 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.