District of Colorado

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 377
Noncitizens, FY2025: 24%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 440
Detained, FY2025: 71.8%

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	92%347	347
Prison and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation and alternatives	<1%1	1
Probation only	7%25	25
Fine only	<1%1	1

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 45 months (mean 68) for the 350 sentenced to prison; 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	32%119	119
Firearms	28%106	106
Immigration	9%33	33
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	8%29	29
Money Launder	6%21	21
Assault	5%18	18
Robbery	4%15	15
Sex Abuse	2%8	8
Stalking/Harassing	1%4	4
Tax	1%4	4
Administration of Justice	1%3	3
Environmental	1%3	3
Manslaughter	1%3	3
Other	1%3	3
Prison Offenses	1%3	3
Commercialized Vice	<1%1	1
Food and Drug	<1%1	1
Kidnapping	<1%1	1
Murder	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1

All 377 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	142	156	114	119	161	107	118	119
Firearms	111	84	71	93	79	74	92	106
Immigration	122	111	68	37	18	29	33	33
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	43	71	43	34	31	20	25	29
Robbery	13	15	20	15	26	23	29	15
Money Launder	15	13	8	9	7	23	16	21
Assault	14	8	19	10	20	14	8	18
Other	4	4	8	9	13	14	10	3
Administration of Justice	10	12	9	7	6	4	8	3
Prison Offenses	6	7	7	11	2	3	7	3
Sex Abuse	3	12	4	2	6	6	4	8
Child Pornography	14	8	4	3	1	2	5	0
Tax	5	12	4	2	2	4	3	4
Stalking/Harassing	1	4	3	5	5	4	3	4
Drug Possession	11	2	1	1	1	3	2	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	6	0	1	2	5	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	1	2	2	5	0	2	0
Food and Drug	3	2	1	2	0	1	0	1
Kidnapping	2	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
Murder	1	0	1	0	3	2	1	1
National Defense	3	1	0	1	0	3	1	0
Arson	0	1	2	1	0	1	1	0
Commercialized Vice	0	2	1	2	0	0	0	1
Environmental	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	3
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	3
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
Individual Rights	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
All offenses	525	529	400	370	389	340	382	377

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	75%284	284
Not a U.S. citizen	24%92	92
Citizenship not known	<1%1	1

33 of the 377 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Hispanic, 9 placed by CrimeDB	48%179	179
White+MENA, 5 placed by CrimeDB	27%103	103
Black, 8 placed by CrimeDB	18%69	69
AIAN, 3 placed by CrimeDB	5%17	17
Asian+NHPI	1%5	5
Race unknown	1%4	4

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 377 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 25 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	33%125	125
II	14%52	52
III	16%61	61
IV	12%44	44
V	9%33	33
VI	16%59	59
Category not known	1%3	3

All 377 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	28%106	106
Above the range	3%12	12
Below the range, government-sponsored	44%164	164
Below the range, not government-sponsored	25%93	93
Not known or not comparable	1%2	2

All 377 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	440	316	124	71.8%	28.2%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	385	263	122	68.3%	31.7%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	305	183	122	60.0%	40.0%

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

FY2006: H-14A: Printed 38; detained (203) plus released (177) is 380, so district sums fall 342 short of the 10th circuit and national totals.

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

Every figure as a table

People sentenced in the District of Colorado, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	573	420	147	6	67
FY2003	608	389	172	47	105
FY2004	548	364	171	13	101
FY2005	632	408	191	33	126
FY2006	682	410	240	32	139
FY2007	548	297	216	35	142
FY2008	488	249	219	20	164
FY2009	524	290	225	9	168
FY2010	531	301	222	8	156
FY2011	667	375	274	18	203
FY2012	567	318	243	6	185
FY2013	588	304	272	12	189
FY2014	541	289	244	8	181
FY2015	437	279	152	6	115
FY2016	483	308	175	0	116
FY2017	436	274	161	1	118
FY2018	525	329	196	0	122
FY2019	529	334	192	3	111
FY2020	400	274	124	2	68
FY2021	370	283	86	1	37
FY2022	389	308	79	2	18
FY2023	340	253	80	7	29
FY2024	382	303	76	3	33
FY2025	377	284	92	1	33

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 District of Colorado, 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	573	435	23	45	67	2	1	80%	0
FY2003*	608	496	15	19	65	12	1	84%	0
FY2004	548	450	17	23	56	2	0	85%	2
FY2005*	632	522	16	28	62	4	0	85%	1
FY2006	682	546	26	29	74	6	1	84%	0
FY2007	548	452	19	27	47	3	0	86%	4
FY2008*	488	410	13	8	52	5	0	87%	2
FY2009	524	433	15	23	51	2	0	85%	1
FY2010*	531	440	14	15	61	1	0	85%	0
FY2011	667	560	24	23	57	3	0	88%	1
FY2012	567	481	29	19	38	0	0	90%	2
FY2013	588	512	20	13	42	1	0	90%	0
FY2014	541	458	19	13	50	1	0	88%	1
FY2015	437	371	17	14	34	1	0	89%	1
FY2016	483	412	17	13	40	1	0	89%	1
FY2017	436	374	20	14	27	1	0	90%	1
FY2018	525	461	19	7	33	5	0	91%	1
FY2019*	529	471	14	11	31	2	0	92%	0
FY2020	400	353	9	7	30	1	0	91%	0
FY2021	370	325	6	8	31	0	0	89%	0
FY2022	389	337	6	8	38	0	0	88%	0
FY2023	340	293	6	5	34	2	0	88%	3
FY2024*	382	340	5	5	32	0	0	90%	1
FY2025	377	347	3	1	25	1	0	93%	0

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 District of Colorado, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	35	21	572	43	30	457
FY2003*	34	24	607	41	30	501
FY2004	41	27	548	49	33	458
FY2005*	39	27	632	46	31	527
FY2006	43	30	681	52	37	564
FY2007	44	26	548	52	33	458
FY2008*	42	27	488	49	33	416
FY2009	44	30	524	52	36	440
FY2010*	37	25	531	44	33	442
FY2011	39	24	667	46	30	562
FY2012	40	24	567	46	30	489
FY2013	43	22	588	50	30	510
FY2014	36	18	541	43	27	452
FY2015	41	18	437	46	27	379
FY2016	43	21	483	49	26	417
FY2017	43	24	436	48	27	387
FY2018	43	24	525	46	30	480
FY2019*	46	30	529	50	33	485
FY2020	49	30	400	54	36	362
FY2021	45	31	370	50	36	331
FY2022	62	48	389	71	55	343
FY2023	65	41	340	74	48	299
FY2024*	63	45	382	69	51	345
FY2025	63	41	377	68	45	350

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 District of Colorado by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	176	162	147	149	178	81	59	92
Immigration	67	105	101	126	139	142	164	168
Firearms	88	85	109	122	108	60	57	91
Fraud	71	57	52	69	78	86	46	31
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	8	49	14	32	33	25	20	24
Robbery	15	18	6	22	17	26	21	26
Larceny	25	15	9	16	12	17	15	12
Drugs - Communication Facilities	9	12	12	10	22	20	11	11
Administration of Justice	22	13	15	6	13	15	8	2
Forgery/Counterfeiting	21	12	21	9	11	5	5	10
Assault	11	10	12	8	11	8	15	9
Pornography/Prostitution	4	5	9	15	9	17	14	6
Money Laundering	8	7	6	13	7	6	3	6
Embezzlement	10	6	7	4	4	10	9	3
Racketeering/Extortion	5	10	4	4	8	7	12	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	7	10	3	7	6	3	2	3
Tax Offenses	5	2	3	6	7	4	5	7
Prison Offenses	9	5	2	3	8	3	3	2
Sexual Abuse	5	7	2	3	1	2	1	7
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	3	2	4	2	3	3	7	3
Manslaughter	1	3	3	0	1	4	4	0
Murder	0	0	0	3	3	1	1	4
Arson	0	3	1	0	0	1	1	0
Bribery	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	2
Civil Rights Offenses	0	2	3	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	2
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
National Defense Offenses	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Offense type not known	3	6	1	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	573	608	548	632	682	548	488	524

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 District of Colorado by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Immigration	156	203	185	189	181	115	116	118
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	90	137	114	111	107	87	98	91
Firearms	65	94	92	88	65	64	104	105
Fraud	57	50	52	67	59	41	34	29
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	16	20	19	18	12	29	11	13
Robbery	25	26	20	9	10	3	7	10
Assault	13	17	18	12	9	15	10	10
Larceny	17	19	10	12	13	10	14	3
Drugs - Communication Facilities	20	25	9	10	17	9	2	2
Child Pornography	7	8	6	13	11	10	10	12
Money Laundering	6	3	11	7	5	9	12	7
Administration of Justice	7	10	7	7	9	4	7	7
Tax Offenses	6	6	5	12	8	5	16	0
Racketeering/Extortion	8	4	1	1	3	8	6	9
Drugs - Simple Possession	6	9	4	3	5	5	4	3
Forgery/Counterfeiting	9	10	1	6	4	3	4	1
Prison Offenses	7	5	2	4	3	4	8	4
Embezzlement	8	5	5	3	3	3	4	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	4	0	5	5	4	4	1
Sexual Abuse	2	4	3	5	1	1	4	2
Murder	0	4	2	0	1	1	1	3
Bribery	1	2	1	1	3	2	1	0
Food and Drug Offenses	2	0	0	0	4	1	2	2
Arson	0	1	0	1	2	1	2	0
National Defense Offenses	0	1	0	0	0	2	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	531	667	567	588	541	437	483	436

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 District of Colorado by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	119	32%
Firearms	106	28%
Immigration	33	9%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	29	8%
Money Launder	21	6%
Assault	18	5%
Robbery	15	4%
Sex Abuse	8	2%
Stalking/Harassing	4	1%
Tax	4	1%
Administration of Justice	3	1%
Environmental	3	1%
Manslaughter	3	1%
Other	3	1%
Prison Offenses	3	1%
Commercialized Vice	1	<1%
Food and Drug	1	<1%
Kidnapping	1	<1%
Murder	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%

All 377 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 District of Colorado by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Hispanic	179	9	48%
White+MENA	103	5	27%
Black	69	8	18%
AIAN	17	3	5%
Asian+NHPI	5	0	1%
Race unknown	4	0	1%

All 377 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 25 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 District of Colorado by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	125	33%
II	52	14%
III	61	16%
IV	44	12%
V	33	9%
VI	59	16%
Category not known	3	1%

All 377 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 District of Colorado against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	106	28%
Above the range	12	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	164	44%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	93	25%
Not known or not comparable	2	1%

All 377 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 District of Colorado, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	516	333	183	64.5%	35.5%
FY2007	609	427	182	70.1%	29.9%
FY2008	614	394	220	64.2%	35.8%
FY2009	546	372	174	68.1%	31.9%
FY2010	656	456	200	69.5%	30.5%
FY2011	559	388	171	69.4%	30.6%
FY2012	632	467	165	73.9%	26.1%
FY2013	562	407	155	72.4%	27.6%
FY2014	488	345	143	70.7%	29.3%
FY2015	506	330	176	65.2%	34.8%
FY2016	413	294	119	71.2%	28.8%
FY2017	489	369	120	75.5%	24.5%
FY2018	529	364	165	68.8%	31.2%
FY2019	564	348	216	61.7%	38.3%
FY2020	425	275	150	64.7%	35.3%
FY2021	356	206	150	57.9%	42.1%
FY2022	340	219	121	64.4%	35.6%
FY2023	390	270	120	69.2%	30.8%
FY2024	369	240	129	65.0%	35.0%
FY2025	440	316	124	71.8%	28.2%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	38	203	177	53.4%	46.6%
FY2007	470	288	182	61.3%	38.7%
FY2008	465	245	220	52.7%	47.3%
FY2009	396	223	173	56.3%	43.7%
FY2010	469	269	200	57.4%	42.6%
FY2011	408	237	171	58.1%	41.9%
FY2012	446	282	164	63.2%	36.8%
FY2013	394	239	155	60.7%	39.3%
FY2014	340	197	143	57.9%	42.1%
FY2015	391	216	175	55.2%	44.8%
FY2016	300	181	119	60.3%	39.7%
FY2017	373	255	118	68.4%	31.6%
FY2018	414	250	164	60.4%	39.6%
FY2019	463	254	209	54.9%	45.1%
FY2020	382	234	148	61.3%	38.7%
FY2021	341	191	150	56.0%	44.0%
FY2022	316	195	121	61.7%	38.3%
FY2023	354	234	120	66.1%	33.9%
FY2024	345	216	129	62.6%	37.4%
FY2025	385	263	122	68.3%	31.7%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	296	177	119	59.8%	40.2%
FY2023	331	213	118	64.4%	35.6%
FY2024	307	181	126	59.0%	41.0%
FY2025	305	183	122	60.0%	40.0%

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