Central District of California

A U.S. district court in the Ninth Circuit, in California. Its figures are federal cases and are never added to California's.

People sentenced, FY2025: 932
Noncitizens, FY2025: 33%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 1,779
Detained, FY2025: 57.1%

Federal sentences

People sentenced in this court under the federal guidelines, by federal fiscal year (October to September), counted by CrimeDB from the Sentencing Commission's records. Dashed lines mark changes in federal sentencing law.

People sentenced, FY2002 to FY2025

FY2003: PROTECT Act, April 30, 2003: appeals courts review departures from the guidelines anew, and the Commission must cut downward departures.
FY2005: United States v. Booker, January 12, 2005: the guidelines become advisory, so FY2005 holds sentences from before and after.
FY2008: Gall and Kimbrough, December 10, 2007: judges may sentence outside the range with less reason given, including over the crack to powder ratio.
FY2010: Fair Sentencing Act, August 3, 2010: crack cocaine thresholds rise and the crack to powder ratio falls from 100 to 1 to about 18 to 1.
FY2019: First Step Act, December 21, 2018: a wider safety valve, no more stacked gun counts, and the crack changes made retroactive.
FY2024: Guideline amendments of November 1, 2023: fewer criminal history points for offenses committed under supervision, and a lower range for people with none.

Sentence type and length, FY2025

Share of people sentenced
Prison only	85%795	795
Prison and alternatives	3%30	30
Probation and alternatives	3%25	25
Probation only	8%78	78
Fine only	<1%4	4

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 36 months (mean 60) for the 825 sentenced to prison, 3 of them to life; life and anything over 470 months count as 470, as the Commission counts them.

Percent sentenced to prison, FY2002 to FY2025

Median prison term in months, FY2002 to FY2025

FY2018: From FY2018 the Commission counts a sentence of time served with no amount given as one day of prison; before, it left those out of the prison term. Counted that way, FY2017's national median prison term would be 24 months, not 27.

People sentenced by offense, FY2025

Share of people sentenced
Drug Trafficking	30%275	275
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	19%181	181
Immigration	12%113	113
Firearms	11%104	104
Robbery	5%47	47
Money Launder	4%41	41
Child Pornography	3%25	25
Bribery/Corruption	3%24	24
Sex Abuse	2%21	21
Tax	2%18	18
Other	2%15	15
Murder	1%11	11
Administration of Justice	1%10	10
Assault	1%10	10
Stalking/Harassing	1%7	7
Kidnapping	1%5	5
Individual Rights	<1%4	4
Burglary/Trespass	<1%3	3
Commercialized Vice	<1%3	3
Drug Possession	<1%3	3
Environmental	<1%3	3
Arson	<1%2	2
Extortion/Racketeering	<1%2	2
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%2	2
National Defense	<1%2	2
Prison Offenses	<1%1	1

All 932 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the Central District of California by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	294	303	275	301	416	330	360	275
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	308	308	245	219	248	212	196	181
Firearms	90	78	90	80	138	117	106	104
Immigration	156	171	101	81	82	49	24	113
Money Launder	30	43	20	20	35	50	42	41
Robbery	34	35	35	33	24	32	30	47
Child Pornography	18	18	20	26	30	17	24	25
Bribery/Corruption	14	23	11	15	23	16	23	24
Tax	17	15	13	21	18	21	18	18
Other	32	33	17	16	11	5	8	15
Sex Abuse	6	9	4	6	23	15	17	21
Assault	14	8	13	6	23	12	7	10
Drug Possession	29	17	10	2	4	1	8	3
Extortion/Racketeering	8	14	17	9	7	10	6	2
Administration of Justice	11	12	7	14	6	6	6	10
Murder	2	5	5	5	6	5	16	11
Stalking/Harassing	3	5	4	5	10	10	7	7
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	14	18	6	4	2	3	1	2
Environmental	17	4	5	2	4	9	3	3
Food and Drug	6	8	8	4	2	1	4	0
Individual Rights	1	1	4	1	1	2	5	4
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	3	1	1	6	5	1	0
Arson	1	5	0	4	0	2	3	2
National Defense	1	2	2	1	2	4	3	2
Burglary/Trespass	2	4	1	0	1	2	2	3
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	2	4	3	3
Prison Offenses	1	1	3	0	1	1	1	1
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	5
Manslaughter	0	0	1	0	2	1	1	0
Antitrust	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	1,110	1,143	918	876	1,128	944	926	932

By the Commission's offense type for these years (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

Earlier years, under the Commission's older offense types, are in the tables at the foot of the page.

People sentenced by citizenship, FY2025

Share of people sentenced
U.S. citizen	67%624	624
Not a U.S. citizen	33%304	304
Citizenship not known	<1%4	4

113 of the 932 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Hispanic, 10 placed by CrimeDB	51%471	471
White+MENA, 5 placed by CrimeDB	21%197	197
Black	15%142	142
Asian+NHPI	11%106	106
Race unknown	2%16	16

Race and Hispanic origin as each person told the probation officer
Race recorded without ethnicity: split by the source's own recorded Hispanic share of each race

All 932 people sentenced. Race and Hispanic origin as each person told the probation officer. Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. White+MENA includes Middle Eastern and North African people. USSC recorded a race and no Hispanic origin for 15 people in FY2025: each keeps that race, and CrimeDB placed only their Hispanic origin, the lighter part.

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025
I	53%495	495
II	13%123	123
III	10%92	92
IV	5%44	44
V	5%45	45
VI	12%115	115
Category not known	2%18	18

All 932 people sentenced. By the category the court found, I (least) to VI (most), from points for prior sentences under the guidelines.

Sentences against the guideline range, FY2025

Sentences against the guideline range, FY2025
Within the range	31%287	287
Above the range	2%18	18
Below the range, government-sponsored	27%248	248
Below the range, not government-sponsored	39%365	365
Not known or not comparable	2%14	14

All 932 people sentenced. In the Commission's four groups. Government-sponsored: the prosecutor moved for it, for substantial assistance, early disposition, or another reason.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Pretrial release and detention

Defendants whose pretrial services case opened in the fiscal year, and the percent detained and never released before trial, as U.S. Courts prints them. Table H-14 counts every case, H-14A leaves out immigration cases, and H-14B, from FY2022, leaves out the cases U.S. Courts classes as illegal alien cases.

Percent detained, all cases (H-14), FY2006 to FY2025

Pretrial release and detention, FY2025

Which cases	Table	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
All cases	H-14	1,779	1,015	764	57.1%	42.9%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	1,289	588	701	45.6%	54.4%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	1,105	450	655	40.7%	59.3%

Detained: detained and never released before trial, as U.S. Courts prints it.

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B.

Every figure as a table

People sentenced in the Central District of California, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	1,760	980	720	60	420
FY2003	1,841	1,030	639	172	328
FY2004	1,683	852	773	58	517
FY2005	1,881	919	880	82	588
FY2006	1,633	805	652	176	364
FY2007	1,701	896	626	179	431
FY2008	1,892	879	887	126	728
FY2009	1,937	943	970	24	672
FY2010	2,127	1,066	1,021	40	604
FY2011	1,895	1,034	833	28	548
FY2012	1,798	963	808	27	522
FY2013	1,684	904	765	15	429
FY2014	1,263	740	520	3	267
FY2015	1,078	722	350	6	141
FY2016	964	705	250	9	98
FY2017	1,017	746	265	6	100
FY2018	1,110	742	353	15	156
FY2019	1,143	779	353	11	171
FY2020	918	711	204	3	101
FY2021	876	654	208	14	81
FY2022	1,128	862	259	7	82
FY2023	944	728	213	3	49
FY2024	926	723	196	7	24
FY2025	932	624	304	4	113

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Immigration offenses are the Commission's offense type for the year (OFFTYPE2 to FY2009, OFFTYPSB to FY2017, OFFGUIDE from FY2018).

Sentence type in the Central District of California, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	Prison only	Prison and alternatives	Probation and alternatives	Probation only	Fine only	Type not known	Sentenced to prison	Life sentences
FY2002	1,760	1,292	87	128	191	6	56	81%	4
FY2003*	1,841	1,259	80	152	231	36	83	76%	3
FY2004	1,683	1,312	54	115	168	8	26	82%	0
FY2005*	1,881	1,442	87	131	187	5	29	83%	3
FY2006	1,633	1,219	61	128	162	6	57	81%	6
FY2007	1,701	1,225	54	109	235	2	76	79%	13
FY2008*	1,892	1,468	59	107	200	11	47	83%	7
FY2009	1,937	1,617	58	96	159	7	0	86%	5
FY2010*	2,127	1,786	70	118	140	12	1	87%	11
FY2011	1,895	1,563	82	114	129	7	0	87%	3
FY2012	1,798	1,555	69	68	93	13	0	90%	1
FY2013	1,684	1,437	73	69	100	4	1	90%	3
FY2014	1,263	1,010	79	62	107	5	0	86%	2
FY2015	1,078	883	59	47	81	8	0	87%	7
FY2016	964	732	51	62	108	11	0	81%	0
FY2017	1,017	779	60	45	100	33	0	82%	3
FY2018	1,110	865	61	56	80	48	0	83%	0
FY2019*	1,143	919	60	48	86	30	0	86%	0
FY2020	918	720	42	47	99	10	0	83%	2
FY2021	876	675	59	48	88	6	0	84%	0
FY2022	1,128	946	67	41	68	6	0	90%	2
FY2023	944	783	36	40	81	4	0	87%	5
FY2024*	926	777	44	33	68	4	0	89%	3
FY2025	932	795	30	25	78	4	0	89%	3

USSC's sentence types (SENTIMP). Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. Sentenced to prison: prison only, or prison and alternatives, of those whose type is known.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

Sentence length in the Central District of California, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	37	24	1,701	45	24	1,376
FY2003*	35	21	1,759	46	26	1,314
FY2004	36	24	1,657	43	24	1,363
FY2005*	40	24	1,853	48	27	1,516
FY2006	44	24	1,576	55	37	1,246
FY2007	46	27	1,625	59	37	1,246
FY2008*	41	30	1,846	50	37	1,495
FY2009	41	30	1,937	48	36	1,646
FY2010*	46	30	2,127	52	37	1,823
FY2011	44	30	1,895	50	37	1,621
FY2012	48	33	1,798	53	37	1,594
FY2013	49	30	1,684	55	37	1,484
FY2014	45	30	1,263	51	37	1,075
FY2015	52	36	1,078	60	41	922
FY2016	44	27	964	55	42	748
FY2017	45	24	1,017	55	36	818
FY2018	42	24	1,110	50	33	926
FY2019*	45	27	1,143	51	34	979
FY2020	44	27	918	52	36	762
FY2021	46	27	876	54	36	734
FY2022	53	36	1,128	58	41	1,013
FY2023	55	33	944	62	41	819
FY2024*	63	37	926	71	46	821
FY2025	54	30	932	60	36	825

Sentence: prison and alternative confinement, with probation and fines as zero (USSC's sentence length). Prison term: prison alone, for those sentenced to prison (USSC's length of imprisonment). Life and anything over 470 months count as 470, as USSC counts them.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

FY2018: From FY2018 the Commission counts a sentence of time served with no amount given as one day of prison; before, it left those out of the prison term. Counted that way, FY2017's national median prison term would be 24 months, not 27.

People sentenced in the Central District of California by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Immigration	420	328	517	588	364	431	728	672
Fraud	355	408	339	332	307	317	339	285
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	270	305	288	364	346	347	270	382
Firearms	84	99	82	105	103	92	98	86
Larceny	123	133	115	86	58	48	48	31
Forgery/Counterfeiting	97	89	65	58	59	38	44	39
Robbery	96	109	43	57	52	30	26	30
Pornography/Prostitution	22	20	41	36	37	58	56	85
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	36	66	32	29	41	45	41	49
Tax Offenses	32	28	27	42	47	43	39	39
Money Laundering	51	23	28	30	47	39	22	26
Racketeering/Extortion	23	6	11	24	18	28	31	39
Drugs - Communication Facilities	17	23	12	10	13	19	19	56
Administration of Justice	19	12	12	16	23	22	12	20
Embezzlement	9	20	11	22	15	11	13	12
Prison Offenses	7	18	9	10	11	11	8	19
Assault	10	11	5	13	12	13	11	17
Bribery	10	10	4	9	9	9	5	5
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	4	3	10	12	6	11	6	8
Food and Drug Offenses	6	8	1	7	1	2	10	12
Civil Rights Offenses	8	3	3	3	8	6	6	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	1	3	5	2	1	4	8
Sexual Abuse	2	2	1	4	4	4	3	3
National Defense Offenses	1	0	3	2	0	2	5	5
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	6	1	0	1	2	0	3	0
Murder	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	3
Gambling/Lottery	3	1	0	0	2	0	0	0
Arson	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	1
Manslaughter	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	2
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Offense type not known	45	111	20	15	44	71	45	0
All offenses	1,760	1,841	1,683	1,881	1,633	1,701	1,892	1,937

By the Commission's offense type for these years (OFFTYPE2). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

People sentenced in the Central District of California by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	500	472	451	490	320	367	283	274
Immigration	604	548	522	429	267	141	98	100
Fraud	401	305	304	334	291	265	266	240
Firearms	100	92	87	60	51	37	47	102
Racketeering/Extortion	80	60	90	81	34	40	30	27
Child Pornography	73	51	56	42	44	44	30	34
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	42	41	59	48	35	27	26	62
Larceny	49	52	28	26	25	16	31	32
Tax Offenses	37	26	30	33	45	15	17	16
Forgery/Counterfeiting	49	41	21	15	13	11	10	18
Drugs - Communication Facilities	48	61	27	18	11	6	1	2
Money Laundering	32	28	18	21	15	16	24	16
Robbery	31	37	22	14	26	18	9	9
Administration of Justice	15	14	12	22	18	10	16	11
Bribery	10	11	17	18	14	9	8	11
Assault	15	11	17	6	12	6	9	5
Embezzlement	7	9	4	7	3	7	10	13
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	4	10	9	4	6	6	8	12
Sexual Abuse	8	6	5	2	10	10	9	6
Food and Drug Offenses	7	2	2	1	6	10	18	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	5	3	4	4	1	6	8	15
National Defense Offenses	2	3	3	7	6	3	2	2
Prison Offenses	4	5	6	0	1	1	1	0
Civil Rights Offenses	1	3	0	0	2	1	2	4
Murder	1	0	2	2	3	4	0	1
Gambling/Lottery	0	1	2	0	2	0	1	0
Arson	1	0	0	0	2	1	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
All offenses	2,127	1,895	1,798	1,684	1,263	1,078	964	1,017

By the Commission's offense type for these years (OFFTYPSB). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

People sentenced in the Central District of California by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	275	30%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	181	19%
Immigration	113	12%
Firearms	104	11%
Robbery	47	5%
Money Launder	41	4%
Child Pornography	25	3%
Bribery/Corruption	24	3%
Sex Abuse	21	2%
Tax	18	2%
Other	15	2%
Murder	11	1%
Administration of Justice	10	1%
Assault	10	1%
Stalking/Harassing	7	1%
Kidnapping	5	1%
Individual Rights	4	<1%
Burglary/Trespass	3	<1%
Commercialized Vice	3	<1%
Drug Possession	3	<1%
Environmental	3	<1%
Arson	2	<1%
Extortion/Racketeering	2	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	2	<1%
National Defense	2	<1%
Prison Offenses	1	<1%

All 932 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

People sentenced in the Central District of California by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Hispanic	471	10	51%
White+MENA	197	5	21%
Black	142	0	15%
Asian+NHPI	106	0	11%
Race unknown	16	0	2%

All 932 people sentenced.

Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. White+MENA includes Middle Eastern and North African people.

USSC recorded a race and no Hispanic origin for 15 people in FY2025: each keeps that race, and CrimeDB placed only their Hispanic origin, the lighter part.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Of which placed by CrimeDB: the part of each group CrimeDB placed (race recorded without ethnicity: split by the source's own recorded Hispanic share of each race); the rest of each group is as USSC recorded it.

People sentenced in the Central District of California by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	495	53%
II	123	13%
III	92	10%
IV	44	5%
V	45	5%
VI	115	12%
Category not known	18	2%

All 932 people sentenced.

The category the court found (XCRHISSR), I (least) to VI (most).

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Sentences in the Central District of California against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	287	31%
Above the range	18	2%
Below the range, government-sponsored	248	27%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	365	39%
Not known or not comparable	14	2%

All 932 people sentenced.

The Commission's four groups (SENTRNGE collapsed as its Sourcebook does).

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Pretrial release and detention in the Central District of California, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	1,744	991	753	56.8%	43.2%
FY2007	1,815	1,089	726	60.0%	40.0%
FY2008	2,642	1,670	972	63.2%	36.8%
FY2009	2,494	1,639	855	65.7%	34.3%
FY2010	2,193	1,402	791	63.9%	36.1%
FY2011	2,081	1,300	781	62.5%	37.5%
FY2012	2,086	1,283	803	61.5%	38.5%
FY2013	1,635	982	653	60.1%	39.9%
FY2014	1,235	651	584	52.7%	47.3%
FY2015	1,137	561	576	49.3%	50.7%
FY2016	1,199	504	695	42.0%	58.0%
FY2017	1,246	696	550	55.9%	44.1%
FY2018	1,462	773	689	52.9%	47.1%
FY2019	1,538	753	785	49.0%	51.0%
FY2020	1,060	485	575	45.8%	54.2%
FY2021	1,178	512	666	43.5%	56.5%
FY2022	1,058	506	552	47.8%	52.2%
FY2023	880	411	469	46.7%	53.3%
FY2024	1,000	450	550	45.0%	55.0%
FY2025	1,779	1,015	764	57.1%	42.9%

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B, as printed.

Pretrial release and detention in the Central District of California, excluding immigration cases (Table H-14A)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	1,416	724	692	51.1%	48.9%
FY2007	1,245	528	717	42.4%	57.6%
FY2008	1,956	989	967	50.6%	49.4%
FY2009	1,931	1,077	854	55.8%	44.2%
FY2010	1,654	867	787	52.4%	47.6%
FY2011	1,597	823	774	51.5%	48.5%
FY2012	1,589	788	801	49.6%	50.4%
FY2013	1,291	640	651	49.6%	50.4%
FY2014	1,058	484	574	45.7%	54.3%
FY2015	1,002	443	559	44.2%	55.8%
FY2016	1,109	427	682	38.5%	61.5%
FY2017	1,138	597	541	52.5%	47.5%
FY2018	1,257	594	663	47.3%	52.7%
FY2019	1,417	647	770	45.7%	54.3%
FY2020	988	423	565	42.8%	57.2%
FY2021	1,103	458	645	41.5%	58.5%
FY2022	1,000	460	540	46.0%	54.0%
FY2023	861	396	465	46.0%	54.0%
FY2024	995	446	549	44.8%	55.2%
FY2025	1,289	588	701	45.6%	54.4%

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B, as printed.

Pretrial release and detention in the Central District of California, excluding illegal alien cases (Table H-14B)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	862	377	485	43.7%	56.3%
FY2023	774	334	440	43.2%	56.8%
FY2024	870	373	497	42.9%	57.1%
FY2025	1,105	450	655	40.7%	59.3%

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B, as printed.