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
In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 142 federal defendants had a case end with 18 U.S.C. 4082 as the most serious charge, and 131 of them (92%) were convicted. Nearly all of those convicted, 129 (98%), received a prison term on that charge, and the median term was 10 months. Only 3 cases went to trial, an
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In brief: In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 142 federal defendants had a case end with 18 U.S.C. 4082 as the most serious charge, and 131 of them (92%) were convicted. Nearly all of those convicted, 129 (98%), received a prison term on that charge, and the median term was 10 months. Only 3 cases went to trial, and 2 of the 3 ended in an acquittal.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 142 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.
The Section and the Count
The U.S. Code heading for Title 18, section 4082 is "Commitment to Attorney General; residential treatment centers; extension of limits of confinement; work furlough". The numbers here are from the Federal Judicial Center. They are counted the way the federal courts count cases in Table D-4.
A defendant is included when the most serious charge at the end of the case was under this section, in any subsection. The count covers every case that ended, whether by guilty plea, dismissal, conviction at trial, or acquittal.
Prison Terms After Conviction
Of the 131 defendants convicted under this section, 129 received a prison term on this charge. That is 98%. The median term was 10 months, counting only terms of 1 month or more.
All 142 cases was charged at the felony level. No case in the count ended with a Class A misdemeanor or a petty offense as the most serious charge.
The prison term reported here is the term on this charge. A defendant may also have been serving or facing time in another case, and these records do not combine the 2.
Guilty Pleas, Dismissals, and Trials
Guilty pleas ended 130 of the 142 cases, or 92%. Another 9 (6%) were dismissed. In these records, a dismissal can include a case the government dismissed after the defendant pleaded guilty in a different case.
Only 3 defendants (2%) went to trial. Of those, 2 were jury trials and 1 was a bench trial, decided by a judge. Of the 2 jury trials, 1 ended in an acquittal, and the single bench trial also ended in an acquittal. A group of 3 trials is too small to support any rate that could be applied to other cases.
What Did the Yearly Counts Show?
The number of cases each fiscal year was small, from 5 in 2025 to 21 in 2022. Guilty pleas were 100% of cases in 2016, 2023, and 2024.
Fiscal year 2022 had the lowest guilty plea share in the table, at 71%, and the highest dismissal share, at 29%. The acquittals came in 2020 and 2025, 1 in each year. With yearly counts this small, these shifts should not be read as trends.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 15 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 7 | 7 of 7 | 0 of 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 15 | 93% | 7% | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 18 | 94% | 0% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2020 | 18 | 89% | 6% | 1 | 1 (1 of 1) |
| 2021 | 14 | 93% | 7% | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 21 | 71% | 29% | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 10 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 19 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 5 | 4 of 5 | 0 of 5 | 1 | 1 (1 of 1) |
Counsel at the End of the Case
Federal public or community defenders represented 93 of the defendants (65%). CJA panel attorneys, private lawyers appointed by the court, represented 40 (28%). Retained private counsel represented 3 (2%), and all 3 pleaded guilty.
The federal defender group pleaded guilty in 95% of cases and had 2% dismissed. The CJA panel group pleaded guilty in 98% of cases and had 3% dismissed. All 3 trials, and both acquittals, were in the federal defender group.
These figures describe groups of cases, not the quality of lawyers. Type of counsel is recorded at the end of the case, and defendants who hire a lawyer face different charges and circumstances from those who receive an appointed one.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 93 | 95% | 2% | 3 | 2 (2 of 3) |
| CJA panel attorney | 40 | 98% | 3% | 0 | 0 |
| Private (retained) counsel | 3 | 3 of 3 | 0 of 3 | 0 | 0 |
What the Records Leave Out
The records give the most serious charge, the way the case ended, and the prison term on that charge. They do not describe the facts of any case or the reasons for a plea, a dismissal, or a sentence. No close court-martial counterpart for this section appears in the approved crosswalk, so no military comparison is made.
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. 4082, any subsection (142), 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. 2423, Transportation of minors: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 18 U.S.C. 3146, Penalty for failure to appear: 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.