Federal Prison Offense Sentences in the District of South Carolina, FY2016–2025
25 people were sentenced in the District of South Carolina for prison offenses in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, and all 25 pleaded guilty. 24 (96%) received a prison term, with a median of 11 months, compared with 10 months across all 94 districts. 44% were in the highest criminal history category.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Sentences in the District of South Carolina, FY2016– › Prison Offense: District of South Carolina
In brief: 25 people were sentenced in the District of South Carolina for prison offenses in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, and all 25 pleaded guilty. 24 (96%) received a prison term, with a median of 11 months, compared with 10 months across all 94 districts. 44% were in the highest criminal history category.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 25 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.
Criminal History Was Mostly in the Highest Category
Criminal history is scored from category I (lowest) to category VI (highest). 44% of this group were in category VI, and 12% were in category I.
Court-martial records have no criminal history field. The records here do not show how criminal history affected any one sentence.
Escape and Contraband
"Prison Offenses" is the Commission's offense type for crimes connected to confinement. 19 people were sentenced mainly under §2P1.1 (Escape, Instigating or Assisting Escape), and 6 under §2P1.2 (Providing or Possessing Contraband in Prison).
These cases were less than 1% of the 6,874 people sentenced in the district in fiscal years 2016 to 2025.
Prison Terms
24 of the 25 people (96%) received a prison term, and 1 (4%) received probation only. The median prison term was 11 months. A quarter received 15 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less.
For all 94 districts, 96% of people in this offense type were sent to prison, the same share as here, and the median was 10 months. For all offenses in this district, the median prison term was 48.2 months, far above the median for prison offenses.
Sentences Against the Guideline Range
76% (19) of sentences were within the range. 4% (1) were below it at the government's request, and 20% (5) were below it without a request. None was above it.
Across all 94 districts, 63% of sentences in this offense type were within the range. For all offenses in this district, 47% were. A mandatory minimum applied to 0 of the 25 people.
Straight Pleas
All 25 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial. Only 12% of the guilty pleas had a written plea agreement, and 88% were straight pleas with no agreement.
For all 94 districts, guilty pleas were 99% in this offense type, and for all offenses in this district they were 98%.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
18 people (72%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. No fine and no restitution was ordered.
Yearly Counts
Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 12 people, and fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 13. Yearly counts run from 1 to 6 people.
Those are very small groups. The medians in the table range from 3.4 months to 24 months and do not show a trend.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3 | 15 months | 3 of 3 |
| 2017 | 4 | 6 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2018 | 1 | 6.6 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2019 | 4 | 10 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2021 | 2 | 15 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2022 | 6 | 12 months | 6 of 6 |
| 2023 | 2 | 14 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2024 | 2 | 3.4 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2025 | 1 | 24 months | 1 of 1 |
Limits of the Records
The data includes only people who were convicted and sentenced. People who were acquitted or whose cases were dismissed are not in it, and the terms are those imposed, not served.
Joint Base Charleston, Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, and Shaw AFB are in this district. Courts-martial are tried in military courts, and this post reports federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in the District of South Carolina (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "South Carolina") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "Prison Offenses" (25). 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 South Carolina, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the District of South Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Firearms Sentences in the District of South Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement Sentences in the District of South Carolina, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the District of South 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.