District of Montana

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 403
Noncitizens, FY2025: 7%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 438
Detained, FY2025: 47.0%

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%344	344
Prison and alternatives	3%13	13
Probation and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation only	11%43	43

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 37 months (mean 58) for the 357 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	40%160	160
Firearms	24%96	96
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	11%44	44
Assault	6%25	25
Immigration	6%23	23
Sex Abuse	4%14	14
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2%8	8
Child Pornography	1%5	5
Environmental	1%5	5
Manslaughter	1%5	5
Other	1%4	4
Stalking/Harassing	1%4	4
Administration of Justice	1%2	2
Money Launder	1%2	2
Robbery	1%2	2
Tax	1%2	2
Arson	<1%1	1
Murder	<1%1	1

All 403 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	129	154	137	142	136	150	158	160
Firearms	81	78	66	91	92	80	77	96
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	25	31	20	21	43	36	29	44
Assault	17	24	23	20	20	16	40	25
Sex Abuse	15	15	10	14	14	20	18	14
Immigration	18	21	17	7	5	9	3	23
Child Pornography	10	8	7	4	10	9	7	5
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	12	11	5	7	2	8	4	8
Stalking/Harassing	6	4	6	3	3	4	7	4
Money Launder	6	6	5	4	6	6	1	2
Robbery	6	8	4	2	0	5	5	2
Manslaughter	5	6	3	4	1	3	3	5
Environmental	7	1	4	1	0	1	2	5
Administration of Justice	3	1	2	1	1	5	3	2
Tax	0	2	5	5	2	0	2	2
Other	0	1	0	2	4	4	1	4
Murder	1	4	2	1	1	2	2	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	6	4	1	0	1	0	0	0
Kidnapping	1	0	0	1	0	7	0	0
Prison Offenses	2	3	0	1	1	0	0	0
Arson	0	0	1	0	2	2	0	1
Burglary/Trespass	1	1	0	0	1	1	2	0
Commercialized Vice	2	0	1	0	2	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	2	0	2	0	0	0	1	0
Drug Possession	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Individual Rights	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
National Defense	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
Antitrust	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	356	385	324	333	348	369	367	403

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	93%374	374
Not a U.S. citizen	7%29	29
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

23 of the 403 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
White+MENA, 1 placed by CrimeDB	54%218	218
AIAN	28%112	112
Hispanic	12%48	48
Black	6%22	22
Asian+NHPI	1%3	3

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 403 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 1 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	39%155	155
II	17%67	67
III	17%67	67
IV	9%37	37
V	9%35	35
VI	10%42	42

All 403 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	35%140	140
Above the range	1%4	4
Below the range, government-sponsored	27%107	107
Below the range, not government-sponsored	38%152	152

All 403 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	438	206	232	47.0%	53.0%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	393	161	232	41.0%	59.0%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	362	132	230	36.5%	63.5%

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 Montana, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	348	312	34	2	14
FY2003	351	298	43	10	29
FY2004	389	346	40	3	21
FY2005	400	323	72	5	46
FY2006	434	359	71	4	40
FY2007	366	301	63	2	40
FY2008	420	348	69	3	49
FY2009	405	357	44	4	26
FY2010	378	325	49	4	26
FY2011	312	291	18	3	14
FY2012	390	358	27	5	15
FY2013	353	339	12	2	1
FY2014	311	294	14	3	5
FY2015	363	340	19	4	10
FY2016	321	304	11	6	5
FY2017	318	300	17	1	4
FY2018	356	322	33	1	18
FY2019	385	348	37	0	21
FY2020	324	302	22	0	17
FY2021	333	324	8	1	7
FY2022	348	338	9	1	5
FY2023	369	353	16	0	9
FY2024	367	353	13	1	3
FY2025	403	374	29	0	23

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 Montana, 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	348	267	6	23	47	1	4	79%	1
FY2003*	351	281	9	21	34	5	1	83%	2
FY2004	389	333	9	14	33	0	0	88%	2
FY2005*	400	329	7	16	48	0	0	84%	1
FY2006	434	376	5	22	31	0	0	88%	7
FY2007	366	312	8	18	27	1	0	87%	5
FY2008*	420	376	10	15	19	0	0	92%	3
FY2009	405	334	8	17	43	3	0	84%	2
FY2010*	378	342	5	9	20	2	0	92%	4
FY2011	312	268	9	13	19	3	0	89%	1
FY2012	390	344	10	12	24	0	0	91%	1
FY2013	353	292	7	19	35	0	0	85%	2
FY2014	311	260	9	9	33	0	0	86%	0
FY2015	363	314	14	5	29	1	0	90%	1
FY2016	321	259	10	11	39	2	0	84%	1
FY2017	318	280	4	3	31	0	0	89%	1
FY2018	356	322	3	3	26	2	0	91%	0
FY2019*	385	343	8	3	31	0	0	91%	1
FY2020	324	293	4	1	26	0	0	92%	0
FY2021	333	293	10	2	28	0	0	91%	0
FY2022	348	315	6	1	26	0	0	92%	0
FY2023	369	329	7	8	25	0	0	91%	1
FY2024*	367	333	4	2	28	0	0	92%	0
FY2025	403	344	13	3	43	0	0	89%	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 Montana, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	45	27	344	56	37	273
FY2003*	55	30	350	65	40	290
FY2004	66	37	389	75	46	342
FY2005*	60	37	400	71	45	336
FY2006	79	42	433	90	60	380
FY2007	66	36	366	75	41	320
FY2008*	69	37	420	75	41	385
FY2009	63	32	405	74	42	341
FY2010*	65	36	378	70	37	347
FY2011	56	37	312	63	45	276
FY2012	63	37	390	69	45	352
FY2013	67	37	353	79	51	299
FY2014	67	44	311	78	57	266
FY2015	63	40	363	71	47	324
FY2016	45	33	321	53	41	265
FY2017	57	36	318	65	48	279
FY2018	57	36	356	62	40	325
FY2019*	55	36	385	60	38	351
FY2020	55	36	324	60	42	297
FY2021	50	30	333	55	36	303
FY2022	48	35	348	51	37	321
FY2023	54	37	369	59	44	336
FY2024*	52	36	367	56	40	337
FY2025	52	31	403	58	37	357

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 Montana by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	161	121	152	140	149	101	123	94
Firearms	26	40	77	64	63	64	80	70
Fraud	28	21	26	32	42	49	54	42
Immigration	14	29	21	46	40	40	49	26
Pornography/Prostitution	3	6	8	16	34	20	31	43
Assault	20	18	17	18	13	22	15	27
Sexual Abuse	12	22	19	16	17	9	17	21
Larceny	21	15	11	19	10	10	5	22
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	13	4	5	2	7	12	8	19
Forgery/Counterfeiting	7	16	10	2	7	6	3	1
Administration of Justice	5	6	8	7	7	1	2	10
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	8	7	9	11	2	4	3
Manslaughter	6	4	4	5	3	3	4	10
Embezzlement	5	5	4	5	5	1	4	4
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	8	4	7	5	2	2	1	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	4	3	2	4	1	2	2	4
Money Laundering	2	9	2	1	1	1	4	0
Tax Offenses	0	1	2	2	4	5	3	1
Robbery	1	2	3	3	4	2	0	1
Murder	1	0	2	2	3	3	2	2
Bribery	0	7	0	2	1	3	0	0
Racketeering/Extortion	0	1	0	0	6	3	0	1
Auto Theft	1	1	1	0	2	3	2	0
Arson	0	1	1	0	0	1	5	0
Civil Rights Offenses	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Prison Offenses	1	1	0	0	1	0	2	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Offense type not known	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	348	351	389	400	434	366	420	405

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 Montana by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	115	117	135	128	125	139	124	124
Firearms	56	23	50	45	38	45	59	78
Fraud	35	28	28	34	28	28	21	22
Assault	18	20	44	30	25	27	38	18
Child Pornography	30	24	24	29	10	35	10	8
Sexual Abuse	22	18	23	25	18	12	9	10
Larceny	17	13	6	13	15	11	3	6
Immigration	26	14	15	1	5	10	5	4
Administration of Justice	14	6	11	11	5	12	10	8
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	7	17	4	7	10	10	11	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	8	2	13	2	3	3	4	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	7	4	7	6	2	4	3
Manslaughter	2	4	3	4	2	2	1	10
Embezzlement	6	4	2	2	2	2	1	8
Forgery/Counterfeiting	1	3	6	1	4	4	7	1
Tax Offenses	2	3	2	0	4	5	4	2
Murder	5	0	3	2	5	3	0	3
Robbery	6	2	1	1	0	6	0	1
Racketeering/Extortion	1	0	3	7	0	0	2	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	1	2	1	4	3	0	0
Bribery	0	0	2	0	1	2	4	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	2	3	1	1	2	0
Prison Offenses	2	2	1	0	0	0	1	2
Money Laundering	0	0	3	0	0	1	0	2
Arson	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	1
Auto Theft	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
National Defense Offenses	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	378	312	390	353	311	363	321	318

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 Montana by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	160	40%
Firearms	96	24%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	44	11%
Assault	25	6%
Immigration	23	6%
Sex Abuse	14	4%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	8	2%
Child Pornography	5	1%
Environmental	5	1%
Manslaughter	5	1%
Other	4	1%
Stalking/Harassing	4	1%
Administration of Justice	2	1%
Money Launder	2	1%
Robbery	2	1%
Tax	2	1%
Arson	1	<1%
Murder	1	<1%

All 403 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 Montana by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
White+MENA	218	1	54%
AIAN	112	0	28%
Hispanic	48	0	12%
Black	22	0	6%
Asian+NHPI	3	0	1%

All 403 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 1 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 Montana by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	155	39%
II	67	17%
III	67	17%
IV	37	9%
V	35	9%
VI	42	10%

All 403 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 Montana against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	140	35%
Above the range	4	1%
Below the range, government-sponsored	107	27%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	152	38%

All 403 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 Montana, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	424	208	216	49.1%	50.9%
FY2007	514	278	236	54.1%	45.9%
FY2008	451	204	247	45.2%	54.8%
FY2009	375	151	224	40.3%	59.7%
FY2010	346	139	207	40.2%	59.8%
FY2011	381	174	207	45.7%	54.3%
FY2012	338	168	170	49.7%	50.3%
FY2013	349	188	161	53.9%	46.1%
FY2014	392	209	183	53.3%	46.7%
FY2015	338	175	163	51.8%	48.2%
FY2016	351	157	194	44.7%	55.3%
FY2017	274	150	124	54.7%	45.3%
FY2018	350	191	159	54.6%	45.4%
FY2019	343	181	162	52.8%	47.2%
FY2020	262	115	147	43.9%	56.1%
FY2021	254	109	145	42.9%	57.1%
FY2022	311	136	175	43.7%	56.3%
FY2023	346	185	161	53.5%	46.5%
FY2024	341	159	182	46.6%	53.4%
FY2025	438	206	232	47.0%	53.0%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	390	175	215	44.9%	55.1%
FY2007	458	223	235	48.7%	51.3%
FY2008	421	174	247	41.3%	58.7%
FY2009	354	131	223	37.0%	63.0%
FY2010	329	122	207	37.1%	62.9%
FY2011	371	164	207	44.2%	55.8%
FY2012	334	164	170	49.1%	50.9%
FY2013	346	185	161	53.5%	46.5%
FY2014	388	205	183	52.8%	47.2%
FY2015	328	165	163	50.3%	49.7%
FY2016	351	157	194	44.7%	55.3%
FY2017	266	142	124	53.4%	46.6%
FY2018	332	173	159	52.1%	47.9%
FY2019	324	162	162	50.0%	50.0%
FY2020	254	108	146	42.5%	57.5%
FY2021	248	103	145	41.5%	58.5%
FY2022	307	132	175	43.0%	57.0%
FY2023	334	173	161	51.8%	48.2%
FY2024	329	147	182	44.7%	55.3%
FY2025	393	161	232	41.0%	59.0%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	297	122	175	41.1%	58.9%
FY2023	323	162	161	50.2%	49.8%
FY2024	323	141	182	43.7%	56.3%
FY2025	362	132	230	36.5%	63.5%

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