18 U.S.C. 3146, Penalty for failure to appear: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
Of 956 federal defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case was under 18 U.S.C. 3146, 418 (44%) had their cases dismissed in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Another 523 (55%) pleaded guilty, and 15 (2%) went to trial. Of the 537 who were convicted, 507 (94%) received a prison term on that
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In brief: Of 956 federal defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case was under 18 U.S.C. 3146, 418 (44%) had their cases dismissed in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Another 523 (55%) pleaded guilty, and 15 (2%) went to trial. Of the 537 who were convicted, 507 (94%) received a prison term on that charge, with a median term of 12 months.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 956 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced 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.
Dismissals Were Common Under This Section
Title 18, section 3146 of the U.S. Code carries the official heading "Penalty for failure to appear". This post counts federal defendants whose most serious charge was under this section when the case ended. The count comes from the Federal Judicial Center and follows the method of the federal courts' Table D-4.
The Federal Judicial Center data includes every defendant whose case ended. That means dismissals and acquittals are counted along with convictions. Under this section, 418 of the 956 defendants had their charges dismissed. That is 44% of all cases that ended.
A dismissal in these records does not always mean the defendant left court without any conviction. The category includes cases the government moved to dismiss, for example after the defendant pleaded guilty in another case. The records in this count do not show which dismissals were of that kind.
Dismissals and Guilty Pleas by Fiscal Year
Each federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. The yearly table shows the share of cases dismissed in each fiscal year from 2016 to 2025.
In fiscal years 2016 to 2019, the dismissal share was 34%, 36%, 42%, and 30%. In fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023, it was higher: 53%, 55%, and 55%. Guilty pleas were less common in those years, at 47%, 44%, and 44%. In fiscal year 2025, 46% of the 81 cases were dismissed and 54% ended in a guilty plea.
The yearly counts range from 79 to 119 cases. The records show when these shares changed, but they cannot show why.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 119 | 60% | 34% | 7 | 1 (1 of 7) |
| 2017 | 105 | 62% | 36% | 2 | 0 (0 of 2) |
| 2018 | 96 | 57% | 42% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2019 | 79 | 68% | 30% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2020 | 87 | 59% | 40% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2021 | 87 | 47% | 53% | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 108 | 44% | 55% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2023 | 94 | 44% | 55% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2024 | 100 | 53% | 46% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2025 | 81 | 54% | 46% | 0 | 0 |
How Many Cases Went to Trial?
Only 15 of the 956 defendants went to trial. Of those 15 trials, 11 were jury trials and 4 were bench trials, which are decided by a judge.
None of the 11 jury trials ended in an acquittal. Of the 4 bench trials, 1 ended in an acquittal. Across all 15 trials, that is 1 acquittal, or 7%. With so few trials, a single case moves this rate a great deal.
Fiscal year 2016 had 7 of the 15 trials. Most later years had 1 trial or none.
Charge Level and Prison Terms
Most of these charges were felonies: 863 defendants, or 90%. The other 93 (10%) were charged at the Class A misdemeanor level. No case ended with a petty offense as the most serious charge.
In all, 537 defendants (56%) were convicted, either by guilty plea or at trial. Of those, 507 (94%) received a prison term on this charge. Among defendants with a prison term of 1 month or more, the median term was 12 months.
The prison figure covers the term on this charge only. It does not include time imposed in any other case.
Type of Counsel at the End of the Case
The records list the type of counsel when the case ended. CJA panel attorneys, who are private lawyers appointed by the court, represented 298 defendants (31%). Federal public or community defenders represented 239 (25%). Retained private counsel represented 102 (11%), and 12 defendants (1%) represented themselves. These groups do not cover every defendant in the count.
Guilty pleas made up 84% of the CJA panel group, 78% of the federal defender group, and 77% of the retained counsel group. Dismissals made up 13%, 20%, and 22% of those groups. The self-represented group split 50% guilty pleas and 50% dismissals.
These differences describe groups of cases, not the quality of lawyers. Defendants who hire a lawyer and those who receive an appointed lawyer face different charges and circumstances. The CJA panel group had 10 of the 15 trials, with 0 acquittals, and the federal defender group had 4 trials, with 1 acquittal.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 239 | 78% | 20% | 4 | 1 (1 of 4) |
| CJA panel attorney | 298 | 84% | 13% | 10 | 0 (0%) |
| Private (retained) counsel | 102 | 77% | 22% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| Self-represented | 12 | 50% | 50% | 0 | 0 |
Limits of These Records
These numbers count defendants by their most serious charge at the end of the case. A defendant charged under this section along with a more serious offense is counted under that other offense instead. The records do not explain why any case was dismissed or why a sentence was set at a given length. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this section, so the post reports federal numbers only.
How We Counted
Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 18 U.S.C. 3146, any subsection (956), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).
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
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
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.
Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers. The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.
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)
- 18 U.S.C. 2422, Coercion and enticement: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 2423, Transportation of minors: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 4082, Commitment to Attorney General; residential treatment centers; extension of limits of confinement; work furlough: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 5032, Delinquency proceedings in district courts; transfer for criminal prosecution: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?
- 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.