District of Massachusetts

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 558
Noncitizens, FY2025: 35%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 573
Detained, FY2025: 62.1%

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	88%492	492
Prison and alternatives	6%36	36
Probation and alternatives	1%4	4
Probation only	5%26	26

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 30 months (mean 52) for the 528 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	38%209	209
Immigration	16%91	91
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	15%83	83
Firearms	8%44	44
Money Launder	7%41	41
Child Pornography	3%14	14
Tax	2%13	13
Sex Abuse	2%12	12
Robbery	2%11	11
Administration of Justice	1%7	7
Assault	1%7	7
Stalking/Harassing	1%4	4
Arson	1%3	3
Commercialized Vice	1%3	3
Food and Drug	1%3	3
Murder	1%3	3
Bribery/Corruption	<1%2	2
Other	<1%2	2
Drug Possession	<1%1	1
Environmental	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1
National Defense	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1
Prison Offenses	<1%1	1

All 558 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	200	149	124	179	179	181	202	209
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	60	96	95	60	91	89	86	83
Immigration	74	65	30	28	16	28	32	91
Firearms	36	48	39	45	57	34	46	44
Money Launder	34	26	21	16	16	28	48	41
Tax	21	11	13	13	17	10	25	13
Child Pornography	11	12	16	11	13	21	22	14
Robbery	10	7	6	11	8	20	17	11
Sex Abuse	6	4	9	9	11	10	16	12
Extortion/Racketeering	14	7	3	9	14	10	3	0
Assault	12	8	3	9	9	8	3	7
Murder	14	10	0	0	13	4	2	3
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	7	6	9	9	6	2
Stalking/Harassing	0	4	6	2	4	8	8	4
Administration of Justice	6	6	1	4	1	2	4	7
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	6	8	6	3	3	0	2	1
Food and Drug	2	3	2	6	1	3	2	3
Kidnapping	10	2	0	4	0	6	0	0
Other	3	0	1	0	1	3	1	2
Commercialized Vice	0	3	0	1	1	0	1	3
National Defense	2	0	1	3	1	1	0	1
Environmental	3	1	0	2	0	0	0	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	2	1	0	0	1	2	0
Individual Rights	0	2	0	1	0	1	2	1
Prison Offenses	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1
Drug Possession	1	0	3	0	0	0	0	1
Arson	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3
Burglary/Trespass	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	529	476	387	422	466	477	531	558

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	65%365	365
Not a U.S. citizen	35%193	193
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

91 of the 558 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Hispanic, 4 placed by CrimeDB	46%256	256
White+MENA, 3 placed by CrimeDB	27%153	153
Black, 1 placed by CrimeDB	19%107	107
Asian+NHPI	7%37	37
Race unknown	1%5	5

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 558 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 8 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	59%331	331
II	15%83	83
III	10%57	57
IV	5%29	29
V	3%19	19
VI	7%39	39

All 558 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%159	159
Above the range	3%17	17
Below the range, government-sponsored	40%225	225
Below the range, not government-sponsored	28%157	157

All 558 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	573	356	217	62.1%	37.9%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	460	244	216	53.0%	47.0%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	367	160	207	43.6%	56.4%

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 District of Massachusetts, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	619	415	201	3	55
FY2003	567	367	185	15	59
FY2004	498	330	138	30	69
FY2005	466	334	125	7	47
FY2006	516	349	148	19	53
FY2007	581	426	141	14	47
FY2008	472	324	132	16	54
FY2009	522	383	132	7	43
FY2010	449	328	114	7	44
FY2011	570	412	149	9	67
FY2012	519	384	132	3	64
FY2013	492	347	142	3	67
FY2014	451	332	119	0	51
FY2015	524	387	134	3	59
FY2016	496	352	141	3	85
FY2017	505	349	151	5	81
FY2018	529	344	181	4	74
FY2019	476	290	186	0	65
FY2020	387	258	127	2	30
FY2021	422	304	117	1	28
FY2022	466	345	121	0	16
FY2023	477	356	119	2	28
FY2024	531	394	136	1	32
FY2025	558	365	193	0	91

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 Massachusetts, 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	619	463	30	55	69	2	0	80%	0
FY2003*	567	444	16	53	50	3	1	81%	2
FY2004	498	377	22	38	57	2	2	80%	0
FY2005*	466	374	18	29	44	1	0	84%	0
FY2006	516	431	21	24	39	0	1	88%	3
FY2007	581	477	19	44	41	0	0	85%	0
FY2008*	472	412	14	17	26	3	0	90%	1
FY2009	522	435	38	19	28	2	0	91%	1
FY2010*	449	363	27	21	36	2	0	87%	1
FY2011	570	477	23	32	35	3	0	88%	1
FY2012	519	426	33	32	27	1	0	88%	0
FY2013	492	405	27	26	33	1	0	88%	0
FY2014	451	365	32	24	28	2	0	88%	1
FY2015	524	437	30	29	27	1	0	89%	0
FY2016	496	409	40	20	26	1	0	91%	0
FY2017	505	395	49	21	40	0	0	88%	0
FY2018	529	424	66	16	23	0	0	93%	4
FY2019*	476	376	58	15	26	1	0	91%	2
FY2020	387	322	41	9	15	0	0	94%	0
FY2021	422	348	48	15	11	0	0	94%	0
FY2022	466	394	36	14	21	1	0	92%	1
FY2023	477	403	44	9	21	0	0	94%	1
FY2024*	531	456	39	8	28	0	0	93%	0
FY2025	558	492	36	4	26	0	0	95%	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 Massachusetts, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	47	24	619	58	40	493
FY2003*	55	30	565	67	40	450
FY2004	49	27	494	61	40	390
FY2005*	50	32	466	59	41	387
FY2006	64	40	514	73	51	443
FY2007	58	36	580	69	51	481
FY2008*	63	46	472	72	54	410
FY2009	59	42	522	66	50	457
FY2010*	58	37	449	69	54	373
FY2011	50	36	570	59	42	471
FY2012	48	30	519	56	37	436
FY2013	49	28	492	59	40	400
FY2014	46	30	451	55	36	375
FY2015	46	26	524	54	36	437
FY2016	39	24	496	47	31	410
FY2017	38	21	505	48	30	390
FY2018	53	24	529	56	30	490
FY2019*	41	18	476	44	24	434
FY2020	36	21	387	38	24	363
FY2021	44	27	422	46	30	396
FY2022	50	30	466	53	33	430
FY2023	52	36	477	55	40	447
FY2024*	50	32	531	53	36	495
FY2025	49	27	558	52	30	528

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 Massachusetts by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	270	223	159	184	238	222	198	242
Fraud	89	74	72	58	62	94	66	64
Firearms	39	60	59	55	53	58	59	63
Immigration	55	59	69	47	53	47	54	43
Larceny	31	23	18	12	9	11	5	11
Tax Offenses	15	19	16	9	15	26	14	6
Robbery	16	10	15	12	12	11	11	28
Money Laundering	24	13	13	18	10	12	9	3
Pornography/Prostitution	10	11	3	3	13	21	15	17
Administration of Justice	15	15	9	18	10	11	8	4
Racketeering/Extortion	8	11	10	14	10	5	3	10
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	5	12	11	7	6	11	4	3
Forgery/Counterfeiting	17	11	4	8	1	8	7	2
Drugs - Communication Facilities	11	2	5	1	1	6	3	2
Embezzlement	5	2	4	3	4	4	5	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	3	5	5	1	5	2	1	2
Assault	0	2	4	3	3	2	3	2
Bribery	1	4	0	0	2	9	1	1
Arson	1	1	1	2	3	4	1	4
Gambling/Lottery	1	2	10	0	2	2	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	3	2	2	0	4	1	3
Civil Rights Offenses	2	2	5	0	0	1	1	3
Sexual Abuse	0	1	0	1	1	7	2	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	2	2	1	1	3
Murder	0	1	0	3	0	1	0	2
Prison Offenses	1	0	1	2	1	1	0	1
Manslaughter	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Offense type not known	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	619	567	498	466	516	581	472	522

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 Massachusetts by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	191	211	183	171	166	192	170	185
Fraud	70	106	89	85	76	87	92	78
Immigration	44	67	64	67	51	59	85	81
Firearms	50	60	69	43	48	62	45	45
Child Pornography	11	17	20	22	19	15	18	15
Administration of Justice	12	10	17	21	10	18	8	11
Tax Offenses	15	15	15	13	11	10	8	16
Money Laundering	3	10	13	11	13	10	10	11
Robbery	10	22	9	10	5	6	11	6
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	8	9	5	13	5	19	10	10
Larceny	12	12	5	3	16	11	9	1
Racketeering/Extortion	5	7	7	5	6	13	6	10
Sexual Abuse	2	2	0	4	0	11	5	7
Embezzlement	2	3	1	3	2	2	2	8
Assault	3	0	6	2	3	0	3	5
Bribery	0	4	3	3	2	2	2	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	2	0	0	4	3	1	2	5
Forgery/Counterfeiting	4	1	1	3	4	0	2	2
Gambling/Lottery	1	2	2	5	1	1	2	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	2	1	1	3	1	0	2
Arson	3	1	2	1	1	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	3	2	0	1	0	2	0
Prison Offenses	0	1	0	0	3	0	2	2
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	3	1	0	1	1	1
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	1	2	1	0	2	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	2
Civil Rights Offenses	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	0
Auto Theft	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	449	570	519	492	451	524	496	505

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 Massachusetts by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	209	38%
Immigration	91	16%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	83	15%
Firearms	44	8%
Money Launder	41	7%
Child Pornography	14	3%
Tax	13	2%
Sex Abuse	12	2%
Robbery	11	2%
Administration of Justice	7	1%
Assault	7	1%
Stalking/Harassing	4	1%
Arson	3	1%
Commercialized Vice	3	1%
Food and Drug	3	1%
Murder	3	1%
Bribery/Corruption	2	<1%
Other	2	<1%
Drug Possession	1	<1%
Environmental	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%
National Defense	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%
Prison Offenses	1	<1%

All 558 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 Massachusetts by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Hispanic	256	4	46%
White+MENA	153	3	27%
Black	107	1	19%
Asian+NHPI	37	0	7%
Race unknown	5	0	1%

All 558 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 8 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 Massachusetts by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	331	59%
II	83	15%
III	57	10%
IV	29	5%
V	19	3%
VI	39	7%

All 558 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 Massachusetts against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	159	28%
Above the range	17	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	225	40%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	157	28%

All 558 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 Massachusetts, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	502	255	247	50.8%	49.2%
FY2007	494	294	200	59.5%	40.5%
FY2008	493	310	183	62.9%	37.1%
FY2009	448	195	253	43.5%	56.5%
FY2010	470	260	210	55.3%	44.7%
FY2011	619	333	286	53.8%	46.2%
FY2012	546	326	220	59.7%	40.3%
FY2013	472	266	206	56.4%	43.6%
FY2014	412	217	195	52.7%	47.3%
FY2015	496	257	239	51.8%	48.2%
FY2016	590	333	257	56.4%	43.6%
FY2017	489	268	221	54.8%	45.2%
FY2018	503	292	211	58.1%	41.9%
FY2019	654	350	304	53.5%	46.5%
FY2020	595	307	288	51.6%	48.4%
FY2021	510	234	276	45.9%	54.1%
FY2022	403	180	223	44.7%	55.3%
FY2023	443	226	217	51.0%	49.0%
FY2024	391	186	205	47.6%	52.4%
FY2025	573	356	217	62.1%	37.9%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	477	230	247	48.2%	51.8%
FY2007	472	273	199	57.8%	42.2%
FY2008	476	293	183	61.6%	38.4%
FY2009	425	172	253	40.5%	59.5%
FY2010	420	210	210	50.0%	50.0%
FY2011	577	292	285	50.6%	49.4%
FY2012	500	280	220	56.0%	44.0%
FY2013	430	224	206	52.1%	47.9%
FY2014	377	183	194	48.5%	51.5%
FY2015	428	190	238	44.4%	55.6%
FY2016	535	280	255	52.3%	47.7%
FY2017	419	200	219	47.7%	52.3%
FY2018	438	237	201	54.1%	45.9%
FY2019	619	319	300	51.5%	48.5%
FY2020	566	280	286	49.5%	50.5%
FY2021	492	217	275	44.1%	55.9%
FY2022	387	164	223	42.4%	57.6%
FY2023	427	212	215	49.6%	50.4%
FY2024	368	164	204	44.6%	55.4%
FY2025	460	244	216	53.0%	47.0%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	343	127	216	37.0%	63.0%
FY2023	380	171	209	45.0%	55.0%
FY2024	333	135	198	40.5%	59.5%
FY2025	367	160	207	43.6%	56.4%

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