What does this study measure?

The median total prison sentence, in months, for federal individual-offender cases by judicial district, FY2020–FY2024 (USSC data, n=311,796). The national median is 24 months; the district median ranges from 6 to 84 months — a 14× spread across districts.

Does a higher district median mean that district's judges are harsher?

Not by itself. A district's overall median reflects its case mix as much as its bench. Border districts post low medians largely because they process a high volume of low-level immigration cases, not because their judges are lenient on serious crime. To separate that out, the study also reports medians within a single charge type — and the geographic gap persists there too, which isolates more of the local charging-culture and judicial component.

Does the disparity hold within the same charge?

Yes. For drug-trafficking cases — one of the two largest federal offense categories by count (n=91,115), and the largest by total prison time imposed — the district median ranges from 12 to 130 months across the 92 districts with at least 100 such cases, against a national median of 60 months. Firearms, fraud, and immigration cases show the same pattern.

Why use the median instead of the average?

Sentence length is heavily right-skewed — a handful of very long terms pulls the mean upward and misstates the typical case. The median (50th percentile) is the standard, robust summary of the typical sentence and is what the Sentencing Commission itself reports.

Is this every federal case?

It is the USSC individual-offender datafile for FY2020–FY2024, restricted to records with a numeric prison term (probation-only and life/death-coded terms are excluded from the median). It covers original sentences under the guidelines; it is not a census of every disposition. Each cell shown carries its own record count (n).

Can I cite or reuse this?

Yes — please link to this page as the source. The underlying data is the public USSC datafile, and every figure is reproducible by re-running the published analysis script against it.

BenchRecon Data Study · Federal

The same federal system, a 14× gap in prison time.

Across 311,796 federal sentencing records (USSC, FY2020–FY2024), the national median prison sentence is 24 months — but the district median runs from 6 months in D. New Mexico to 84 months in S.D. Iowa. A 14× spread for the same federal code.

We analyzed every federal individual-offender record in the U.S. Sentencing Commission's public datafile for FY2020 through FY2024 — 311,796 cases — and took the median total prison sentence in each of the 94 judicial districts. The result is a map of where a federal charge costs the most months in custody, before and after controlling for what the charge is.

Aggregate analysis. Reproducible from public USSC data. No individual is named.

24 monational median federal prison sentence (n=311,796)

84 moharshest district median — S.D. Iowa

6 molowest district median — D. New Mexico

14×spread, harshest vs. lowest district

Where a federal charge costs the most months

The twelve districts with the highest median total prison sentence, FY2020–FY2024(districts with at least 200 sentenced records). Every row carries its case count.

Highest district median prison sentence (FY2020–FY2024)
District	Circuit	Median	n
S.D. Iowa	8th	84 mo	2,138
C.D. Illinois	7th	74 mo	1,247
W.D. Arkansas	8th	74 mo	1,035
E.D. Kentucky	6th	72 mo	2,236
W.D. Missouri	8th	70 mo	3,713
E.D. Tennessee	6th	70 mo	3,127
S.D. Illinois	7th	70 mo	1,201
S.D. Indiana	7th	68 mo	2,210
D. Minnesota	8th	68 mo	1,650
E.D. Oklahoma	10th	63 mo	899
N.D. Texas	5th	60 mo	7,361
E.D. Texas	5th	60 mo	3,884

And where it costs the fewest

The ten lowest district medians. The bottom of the list is dominated by the Southwest border districts — D. New Mexico, D. Arizona, S.D. Texas, W.D. Texas — whose dockets are heavy with high-volume, low-level immigration cases. That case mix, not a lenient bench, is what pulls these overall medians down; the offense-controlled tables below show what happens when the charge is held constant.

Lowest district median prison sentence (FY2020–FY2024)
District	Circuit	Median	n
D. New Hampshire	1st	21 mo	855
N.D. California	9th	20 mo	2,166
W.D. Washington	9th	16 mo	1,677
S.D. California	9th	15 mo	15,723
E.D. New York	2nd	13 mo	2,987
D. Vermont	2nd	12 mo	716
W.D. Texas	5th	10 mo	35,368
S.D. Texas	5th	9 mo	36,411
D. Arizona	9th	6 mo	22,107
D. New Mexico	10th	6 mo	10,384

The complete ranking covers 92 districts (the two below the 200-record floor are omitted). Median = 50th percentile of total prison months; n = sentenced individual-offender records in that district.

The gap holds inside a single charge

A skeptic's first objection is case mix: maybe the harsh districts just see worse crimes. So we held the charge constant. Within each of the four highest-volume federal offense categories, the district median still swings widely. For drug trafficking — one of the two largest categories by count, and the largest by total prison time imposed — the median ranges from 12 months to 130 months across the 92 districts with 100+ such cases, against a national median of 60 months. Same charge, an order-of-magnitude difference in exposure depending on where it is filed.

Drug Trafficking

National median 60 mo (n=91,115). Among the 92 districts with 100+ drug trafficking cases, the district median ranges 12 mo to 130 mo.

Drug Trafficking — harshest districts
District	Circuit	Median	n
S.D. Iowa	8th	130 mo	992
E.D. Texas	5th	120 mo	1,816
S.D. Indiana	7th	120 mo	870
D. South Dakota	8th	120 mo	777
N.D. Iowa	8th	120 mo	558
C.D. Illinois	7th	120 mo	483
W.D. Louisiana	5th	113 mo	509
S.D. Mississippi	5th	110 mo	514

Drug Trafficking — lowest districts
District	Circuit	Median	n
D. New Hampshire	1st	35 mo	483
S.D. California	9th	27 mo	7,505
D. Arizona	9th	21 mo	2,422
D. Vermont	2nd	19 mo	350
E.D. New York	2nd	12 mo	832
N.D. California	9th	12 mo	808

Firearms

National median 37 mo (n=41,971). Among the 87 districts with 100+ firearms cases, the district median ranges 12 mo to 66 mo.

Firearms — harshest districts
District	Circuit	Median	n
D. Minnesota	8th	66 mo	350
E.D. Kentucky	6th	64 mo	236
D. South Carolina	4th	60 mo	617
M.D. Georgia	11th	60 mo	423
E.D. Louisiana	5th	60 mo	250
N.D. Florida	11th	60 mo	169
W.D. Arkansas	8th	60 mo	149
M.D. Florida	11th	57 mo	640

Firearms — lowest districts
District	Circuit	Median	n
S.D. California	9th	24 mo	245
W.D. Washington	9th	24 mo	127
E.D. Wisconsin	7th	22 mo	299
D. Maine	1st	15 mo	115
D. Vermont	2nd	13 mo	122
D. Arizona	9th	12 mo	611

Fraud / Theft / Embezzlement

National median 8 mo (n=25,431). Among the 76 districts with 100+ fraud / theft / embezzlement cases, the district median ranges 0 mo to 24 mo.

Fraud / Theft / Embezzlement — harshest districts
District	Circuit	Median	n
S.D. Florida	11th	24 mo	1,487
N.D. Texas	5th	24 mo	684
W.D. North Carolina	4th	24 mo	206
S.D. Indiana	7th	24 mo	159
N.D. Georgia	11th	21 mo	483
E.D. Texas	5th	21 mo	373
E.D. California	9th	21 mo	257
E.D. Tennessee	6th	21 mo	173

Fraud / Theft / Embezzlement — lowest districts
District	Circuit	n
D. South Dakota	8th	156
W.D. Kentucky	6th	141
D. New Mexico	10th	129
D. New Hampshire	1st	103
E.D. Washington	9th	103
W.D. Arkansas	8th	103

Immigration

National median 5 mo (n=98,868). Among the 47 districts with 100+ immigration cases, the district median ranges 0 mo to 24 mo.

Immigration — harshest districts
District	Circuit	Median	n
N.D. Texas	5th	24 mo	748
E.D. Texas	5th	18 mo	385
N.D. Illinois	7th	16 mo	155
C.D. California	9th	15 mo	337
D. Colorado	10th	15 mo	185
E.D. Pennsylvania	3rd	12 mo	172
W.D. Oklahoma	10th	9 mo	330
E.D. North Carolina	4th	8 mo	248

Immigration — lowest districts
District	Circuit	n
N.D. Florida	11th	120
S.D. Ohio	6th	117
M.D. Georgia	11th	116
D. Delaware	3rd	109
D. North Dakota	8th	108
D. Oregon	9th	108

Only cells with at least 100 cases are shown, so each median rests on a stable sample. A median of 0 months (seen in some fraud and immigration cells) reflects districts where the typical such case resolves in probation or time served — itself a marker of how differently the same charge is treated.

Florida's three districts

Even inside one state, the median diverges. Florida's three federal districts span a 20-month range overall.

Florida federal districts — median prison sentence (FY2020–FY2024)
District	Circuit	Median	n
M.D. Florida	11th	50 mo	5,546
N.D. Florida	11th	42 mo	1,319
S.D. Florida	11th	30 mo	6,787

Methodology & limitations

Source & method

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, Commission Datafiles, individual-offender records (public). ussc.gov/research/datafiles. Snapshot analyzed: 2026-06-21.
Population: 311,796 FY2020–FY2024 individual-offender records. Medians use the 311,796 records with a numeric total prison term (USSC variable TOTPRISN); probation-only and life/death-coded terms are excluded from the median.
Statistic: the median (50th percentile, computed with percentile_cont) of total prison months, grouped by judicial district (USSC variable DISTRICT). The geographic table shows districts with 200+ records; the offense tables show district cells with 100+ records.
Offense control: the offense-controlled cuts restrict to a single USSC offense-guideline category (OFFGUIDE): Drug Trafficking, Firearms, Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement, and Immigration — the four highest-volume categories. Labels are taken verbatim from the USSC variable codebook.
Reproducible: a published analysis script regenerates every figure on this page from the source data, and a companion verification script re-checks each number against the live datafile.

What the data does NOT show

A district's median reflects its case mix as much as its bench. A low overall median (the border districts) is driven by a high volume of low-level immigration cases, not by lenient judges. The offense-controlled cuts isolate more — but not all — of the charging-culture and judicial component.
Medians describe the typical case, not any individual sentence, and not the appropriate sentence in any matter. Mandatory minimums, criminal history, and acceptance of responsibility all move individual cases off the median.
This is the federal guidelines population only — not state-court sentencing, and not pre-guidelines or fast-track program detail beyond what the datafile encodes.
Do not infer anything about a specific judge, defendant, or case from these aggregate district figures. This study identifies no individual.

Cite this analysis

Journalists and researchers — please link to this page as the source.

BenchRecon, “Federal sentencing disparity by district: a 14× spread in median prison time” (USSC FY2020–FY2024individual-offender data). https://benchrecon.com/data/federal-sentencing-disparity

The underlying figures come from the public USSC datafile and are reproducible from the published analysis script.

Build the comparable for your district

BenchRecon's Sentencing Snapshot turns this district-level signal into a case-specific comparables brief — the median and distribution for your charge, criminal-history category, and district, cited to the underlying USSC records, ready to file as a §3553(a) exhibit.

See the Sentencing Snapshot District Recon — the full district profile Free: sentencing-comparables preview

Common questions

What does this study measure?: The median total prison sentence, in months, for federal individual-offender cases by judicial district, FY2020–FY2024 (USSC data, n=311,796). The national median is 24 months; the district median ranges from 6 to 84 months — a 14× spread across districts.
Does a higher district median mean that district's judges are harsher?: Not by itself. A district's overall median reflects its case mix as much as its bench. Border districts post low medians largely because they process a high volume of low-level immigration cases, not because their judges are lenient on serious crime. To separate that out, the study also reports medians within a single charge type — and the geographic gap persists there too, which isolates more of the local charging-culture and judicial component.
Does the disparity hold within the same charge?: Yes. For drug-trafficking cases — one of the two largest federal offense categories by count (n=91,115), and the largest by total prison time imposed — the district median ranges from 12 to 130 months across the 92 districts with at least 100 such cases, against a national median of 60 months. Firearms, fraud, and immigration cases show the same pattern.
Why use the median instead of the average?: Sentence length is heavily right-skewed — a handful of very long terms pulls the mean upward and misstates the typical case. The median (50th percentile) is the standard, robust summary of the typical sentence and is what the Sentencing Commission itself reports.
Is this every federal case?: It is the USSC individual-offender datafile for FY2020–FY2024, restricted to records with a numeric prison term (probation-only and life/death-coded terms are excluded from the median). It covers original sentences under the guidelines; it is not a census of every disposition. Each cell shown carries its own record count (n).
Can I cite or reuse this?: Yes — please link to this page as the source. The underlying data is the public USSC datafile, and every figure is reproducible by re-running the published analysis script against it.