Federal Prison Offense Sentences in the District of North Dakota, FY2016–2025
Of the 37 people sentenced under the Commission's "Prison Offenses" type in the District of North Dakota in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 36 had escape as their primary guideline, §2P1.1 (Escape, Instigating or Assisting Escape). All 37 pleaded guilty and received prison, with a median term of 10.4 mon
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Sentences in the District of North Dakota, FY2016–20 › Prison Offense: District of North Dakota
In brief: Of the 37 people sentenced under the Commission's "Prison Offenses" type in the District of North Dakota in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 36 had escape as their primary guideline, §2P1.1 (Escape, Instigating or Assisting Escape). All 37 pleaded guilty and received prison, with a median term of 10.4 months, about the same as the 10 months across all 94 districts.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 37 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.
Escape Cases
The offense type is the U.S. Sentencing Commission's category, and it groups cases by primary guideline. In this district, 36 of the 37 cases used §2P1.1 (Escape, Instigating or Assisting Escape).
The other case used §2P1.2 (Providing or Possessing Contraband in Prison). Prison Offenses cases were 1% of the 3,337 people sentenced in the district.
Prison Terms
All 37 people (100%) received a prison term, and none received probation only. The median prison term was 10.4 months. A quarter received 7.2 months or less, and a quarter received 13 months or more.
The median for all offenses in the District of North Dakota was 36 months. Across all 94 districts, 96% of people in this type were sent to prison. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
Criminal History Categories
None of the people (0%) were in the lowest criminal history category, category I. In the highest, category VI, were 35%.
Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so no military figure is available for this measure.
Guilty Pleas Without Trials
All 37 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. The rate was 99% across all 94 districts for this type and 97% for all offenses in the district.
Among guilty pleas, 95% had a written plea agreement and 5% were straight pleas with no agreement. Because there were no trials, the data has no trial median for comparison.
Sentences Against the Guideline Range
The sentence was within the guideline range for 27 people (73%). It was below the range without a government request for 7 people (19%), and below it at the government's request for 3 people (8%). None was above the range (0%).
Across all 94 districts, 63% of sentences in this type were within the range. For all offenses in this district, the figure was 34%. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 37 people (0%).
Supervised Release and Restitution
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 36 people (97%), with a median term of 36 months. Restitution was ordered for 2 people (5%), and no fine was ordered for anyone (0%).
Counts by Fiscal Year
Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 account for 15 people, and fiscal years 2020 to 2025 account for 22 people. A fiscal year starts on October 1 and ends the following September.
The yearly counts run from 1 person in 2024 to 6 people in 2021. The yearly medians run from 6 months in 2019 to 18 months in 2025. With 1 to 6 people in a year, the table does not show a trend.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2 | 9 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2017 | 5 | 11 months | 5 of 5 |
| 2018 | 3 | 8 months | 3 of 3 |
| 2019 | 5 | 6 months | 5 of 5 |
| 2020 | 3 | 12 months | 3 of 3 |
| 2021 | 6 | 8.8 months | 6 of 6 |
| 2022 | 4 | 12 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2023 | 5 | 12 months | 5 of 5 |
| 2024 | 1 | 8 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2025 | 3 | 18 months | 3 of 3 |
What the Records Cannot Show
Only people who were convicted and sentenced are counted. Acquittals and dismissals are missing, and the sheet gives no facts about any escape or any person's circumstances.
The Air Force bases in this district, Grand Forks AFB and Minot AFB, appear in this site's court-martial data. Courts-martial are tried in military courts, so these federal figures stand alone.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in the District of North Dakota (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "North Dakota") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "Prison Offenses" (37). 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 District of North Dakota, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the District of North Dakota, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the District of North Dakota, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Firearms Sentences in the District of North Dakota, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Assault Sentences in the District of North Dakota, 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.