Joint Base Lewis-McChord vs. Fort Bliss: Two Army Installations Side by Side, 2020–2023

Trends › By Installation › Joint Base Lewis-McChord › vs. Fort Bliss

Based on 139 cases · 2020–2023 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Full Acquittals Were More Common at Joint Base Lewis-McChord

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either as a not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. At Joint Base Lewis-McChord, 41 contested cases reached a verdict. 17 of them ended in a full acquittal (41%). At Fort Bliss, 10 of 31 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (32%).

Another 17 contested cases at Joint Base Lewis-McChord ended in a partial acquittal (41%). A partial acquittal means the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals are common in Army records.

Which Charges Appeared Most Often?

134 of the 139 records list the charges, and one case can count under several articles. Article 134, the general article, was the most common charge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. It appeared in 38 cases (28%), compared with 15% at Fort Bliss. Article 120, rape and sexual assault, appeared in 36 cases (27%), compared with 17% at Fort Bliss.

Two charges were less common at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Article 128, assault, appeared in 25% of cases, compared with 38% at Fort Bliss. Article 112a, the drug article, appeared in 11%, compared with 21%. Article 80, attempts, appeared in 10% of cases here and 5% at Fort Bliss.

Conviction Rates and Sentences by Charge

Article 128b, domestic violence, ended in a conviction on that article in 22 of 24 cases (92%). Article 134 did so in 32 of 38 cases (84%), and Article 128 in 22 of 34 (65%). Article 120 had the lowest share among the top charges: 17 of 36 cases (47%) ended in a conviction on that article.

When the conviction included Article 120, the median confinement was 1.8 years. It was 1 year for Article 134, 6 months for Article 128, and 5 months for Article 128b. A case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows overlap.

Guilty Pleas and Plea Agreements

97 cases at Joint Base Lewis-McChord ended in a guilty plea, and 42 were contested. The contested share was 30%, about the same as the 32% at Fort Bliss. 90 of the 97 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement, and 7 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed, not its terms.

The guilty-plea rate differed by charge. Cases charging Article 134 ended in a guilty plea 74% of the time (28 of 38), the highest among the top charges. Cases charging Article 120 ended in a guilty plea 39% of the time (14 of 36). The records do not give a reason for any plea.

How Long Was Confinement?

118 cases ended in a conviction, and 90% of those sentences included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and 8 months at Fort Bliss. These are adjudged sentences: the sentence announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.

Sentences of more than one year were less common here: 28 of 118 convictions (24%), compared with 30% at Fort Bliss. Sentences under 6 months were 43% of convictions here and 37% at Fort Bliss. Sentences of 5 years or more were 6% here and 9% at Fort Bliss. No confinement was 10% here and 8% at Fort Bliss.

Court Level, Forum, and Rank

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. General courts-martial tried 98 of the 137 cases with a court level listed (72%), with a median confinement of 9 months. The 39 special courts-martial had a median of 3 months. The court level is not listed for 2 cases.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 25% of the cases with the forum listed: 29 enlisted panels and 5 officer panels. The other 103 cases were judge alone. Among contested cases, members heard 32 of 40 (80%).

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 68% of the accused, NCOs were 31%, and officers were 1%. At Fort Bliss, junior enlisted members were 69% of the accused.

Punitive Discharges for Enlisted Members

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member, or a dismissal for an officer. 87 of 117 convicted enlisted members at Joint Base Lewis-McChord received a punitive discharge (74%): 68 bad-conduct and 19 dishonorable. At Fort Bliss the share was 80%.

1 convicted officer or warrant officer appears in these records, and 1 was dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Case Counts by Year

The records run from September 2020 to December 2023. By year, Joint Base Lewis-McChord had 4 cases in 2020, 52 in 2021, 47 in 2022, and 36 in 2023. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, so the 2020 count is low.

The two installations tried a similar number of Army cases in these years. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so this comparison uses shares, not counts.

What the Records Do Not Show

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the terms of plea agreements. Cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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.