District of North Dakota

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 325
Noncitizens, FY2025: 18%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 350
Detained, FY2025: 51.4%

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	96%311	311
Prison and alternatives	3%10	10
Probation and alternatives	<1%1	1
Probation only	1%3	3

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 30 months (mean 60) for the 321 sentenced to prison, 1 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	42%136	136
Immigration	16%53	53
Firearms	13%42	42
Assault	7%24	24
Sex Abuse	5%15	15
Money Launder	3%8	8
Child Pornography	2%7	7
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2%7	7
Administration of Justice	2%5	5
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	2%5	5
Murder	1%4	4
Robbery	1%4	4
Stalking/Harassing	1%4	4
Manslaughter	1%3	3
Prison Offenses	1%3	3
Arson	1%2	2
Drug Possession	<1%1	1
Other	<1%1	1
Tax	<1%1	1

All 325 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	157	148	112	128	169	224	179	136
Immigration	42	40	35	12	4	34	23	53
Assault	27	29	24	26	31	21	31	24
Firearms	25	14	14	27	28	33	28	42
Sex Abuse	25	19	9	22	27	22	13	15
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	23	31	13	16	17	10	10	5
Money Launder	19	13	14	5	14	10	4	8
Child Pornography	7	5	9	8	11	14	14	7
Administration of Justice	16	5	2	12	4	4	7	5
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	3	2	6	4	5	9	6	7
Robbery	2	0	0	12	13	8	1	4
Prison Offenses	3	5	3	6	4	5	1	3
Stalking/Harassing	4	3	1	1	2	5	2	4
Murder	4	4	1	2	2	0	2	4
Manslaughter	3	1	0	2	4	4	1	3
Arson	3	3	4	0	1	0	1	2
Environmental	3	0	1	3	3	1	0	0
Drug Possession	1	0	0	1	2	2	2	1
Tax	0	0	2	1	2	1	1	1
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	2	1	0	0	2	0	0	0
Other	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
Commercialized Vice	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	370	329	252	289	345	413	327	325

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	82%265	265
Not a U.S. citizen	18%60	60
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

53 of the 325 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
AIAN, 3 placed by CrimeDB	36%116	116
Hispanic	23%74	74
White+MENA	23%73	73
Black	17%54	54
Asian+NHPI	2%6	6
Race unknown	1%2	2

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 325 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 3 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	44%143	143
II	14%47	47
III	13%43	43
IV	8%27	27
V	4%13	13
VI	16%51	51
Category not known	<1%1	1

All 325 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	39%125	125
Above the range	4%13	13
Below the range, government-sponsored	45%147	147
Below the range, not government-sponsored	12%40	40

All 325 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	350	180	170	51.4%	48.6%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	293	127	166	43.3%	56.7%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	278	113	165	40.6%	59.4%

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 North Dakota, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	147	106	40	1	20
FY2003	214	152	53	9	39
FY2004	223	121	95	7	92
FY2005	245	151	91	3	80
FY2006	252	162	89	1	69
FY2007	211	166	44	1	37
FY2008	254	207	45	2	37
FY2009	278	171	99	8	92
FY2010	261	141	120	0	106
FY2011	275	168	106	1	93
FY2012	288	170	118	0	98
FY2013	327	228	99	0	89
FY2014	339	217	122	0	102
FY2015	424	287	135	2	126
FY2016	361	298	63	0	56
FY2017	326	267	58	1	50
FY2018	370	307	63	0	42
FY2019	329	274	54	1	40
FY2020	252	216	36	0	35
FY2021	289	267	22	0	12
FY2022	345	333	12	0	4
FY2023	413	370	43	0	34
FY2024	327	300	27	0	23
FY2025	325	265	60	0	53

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 North Dakota, 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	147	118	5	8	14	1	1	84%	0
FY2003*	214	168	5	10	25	5	1	81%	4
FY2004	223	187	14	4	15	0	3	91%	2
FY2005*	245	206	6	14	17	1	1	87%	0
FY2006	252	207	9	15	19	1	1	86%	2
FY2007	211	168	5	15	22	1	0	82%	1
FY2008*	254	215	5	12	22	0	0	87%	2
FY2009	278	254	4	8	12	0	0	93%	1
FY2010*	261	229	8	9	15	0	0	91%	4
FY2011	275	258	11	4	2	0	0	98%	3
FY2012	288	267	8	5	8	0	0	95%	1
FY2013	327	289	19	7	12	0	0	94%	2
FY2014	339	310	16	6	7	0	0	96%	2
FY2015	424	368	30	5	21	0	0	94%	0
FY2016	361	332	17	6	6	0	0	97%	3
FY2017	326	296	21	3	5	1	0	97%	2
FY2018	370	343	20	0	6	1	0	98%	1
FY2019*	329	307	13	1	8	0	0	97%	1
FY2020	252	234	9	0	8	1	0	96%	2
FY2021	289	265	15	0	8	1	0	97%	0
FY2022	345	326	12	0	7	0	0	98%	3
FY2023	413	389	19	3	2	0	0	99%	1
FY2024*	327	304	14	2	7	0	0	97%	1
FY2025	325	311	10	1	3	0	0	99%	1

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 North Dakota, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	34	15	146	39	21	123
FY2003*	44	15	213	53	22	173
FY2004	30	6	220	33	10	194
FY2005*	43	12	244	51	21	207
FY2006	44	10	250	51	21	213
FY2007	62	24	211	74	40	173
FY2008*	61	33	254	70	46	218
FY2009	51	19	278	57	30	246
FY2010*	48	12	261	53	15	235
FY2011	57	24	275	58	24	269
FY2012	50	18	288	53	21	273
FY2013	47	21	327	51	24	302
FY2014	55	20	339	59	27	314
FY2015	41	12	424	46	21	370
FY2016	65	35	361	77	48	306
FY2017	50	24	326	57	33	284
FY2018	55	30	370	56	30	363
FY2019*	57	24	329	59	26	320
FY2020	53	30	252	54	33	243
FY2021	68	37	289	69	39	280
FY2022	65	36	345	66	36	338
FY2023	58	38	413	58	39	408
FY2024*	64	40	327	66	41	318
FY2025	60	28	325	60	30	321

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 North Dakota by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Immigration	20	39	92	80	69	37	37	92
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	24	35	21	44	63	70	94	82
Firearms	23	31	34	33	31	24	35	26
Fraud	21	16	12	21	25	13	12	13
Assault	11	15	15	15	10	12	17	12
Sexual Abuse	5	14	5	13	11	8	10	10
Larceny	9	11	6	5	6	4	6	7
Pornography/Prostitution	1	2	10	9	6	5	3	13
Embezzlement	3	14	8	1	1	4	7	0
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	2	3	4	0	7	10	6	3
Manslaughter	3	4	4	2	4	5	4	1
Administration of Justice	2	2	2	6	1	1	7	5
Forgery/Counterfeiting	3	1	2	5	4	2	3	1
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	5	3	0	0	3	2	2	4
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	4	0	1	3	3	5	0
Robbery	4	3	3	0	1	1	2	0
Prison Offenses	2	2	2	1	1	0	1	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	6	2	1	1	0	0	0
Arson	3	0	0	0	2	3	0	1
Money Laundering	1	2	0	1	1	1	1	1
Murder	2	2	0	0	0	1	1	2
Tax Offenses	0	2	0	0	0	2	1	3
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Auto Theft	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Offense type not known	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	147	214	223	245	252	211	254	278

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 North Dakota by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	60	78	74	98	106	123	150	141
Immigration	106	93	98	89	102	126	56	50
Firearms	17	18	25	31	18	30	41	27
Assault	9	16	16	24	23	26	16	32
Fraud	14	9	17	15	19	32	14	9
Child Pornography	11	19	16	15	14	16	24	11
Sexual Abuse	10	13	10	7	20	20	23	14
Administration of Justice	2	11	10	9	5	7	8	10
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	2	2	5	4	6	15	6	5
Prison Offenses	6	5	1	2	2	6	2	5
Larceny	6	0	3	3	2	5	1	6
Manslaughter	5	2	1	6	3	2	0	5
Robbery	1	2	1	6	3	4	3	2
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	3	5	5	1	1	4	1	0
Forgery/Counterfeiting	1	1	2	4	2	2	3	0
Embezzlement	1	0	2	2	0	4	0	2
Arson	3	1	1	2	1	0	1	0
Money Laundering	2	0	0	3	2	1	1	0
Murder	0	0	0	1	3	0	3	1
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	0	1	2	0	0	1	3
Tax Offenses	1	0	0	1	0	0	2	2
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	0
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Auto Theft	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	261	275	288	327	339	424	361	326

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 North Dakota by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	136	42%
Immigration	53	16%
Firearms	42	13%
Assault	24	7%
Sex Abuse	15	5%
Money Launder	8	3%
Child Pornography	7	2%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	7	2%
Administration of Justice	5	2%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	5	2%
Murder	4	1%
Robbery	4	1%
Stalking/Harassing	4	1%
Manslaughter	3	1%
Prison Offenses	3	1%
Arson	2	1%
Drug Possession	1	<1%
Other	1	<1%
Tax	1	<1%

All 325 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 North Dakota by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
AIAN	116	3	36%
Hispanic	74	0	23%
White+MENA	73	0	23%
Black	54	0	17%
Asian+NHPI	6	0	2%
Race unknown	2	0	1%

All 325 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 3 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 North Dakota by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	143	44%
II	47	14%
III	43	13%
IV	27	8%
V	13	4%
VI	51	16%
Category not known	1	<1%

All 325 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 North Dakota against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	125	39%
Above the range	13	4%
Below the range, government-sponsored	147	45%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	40	12%

All 325 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 North Dakota, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	306	171	135	55.9%	44.1%
FY2007	300	121	179	40.3%	59.7%
FY2008	310	144	166	46.5%	53.5%
FY2009	311	178	133	57.2%	42.8%
FY2010	370	217	153	58.6%	41.4%
FY2011	384	210	174	54.7%	45.3%
FY2012	415	227	188	54.7%	45.3%
FY2013	460	229	231	49.8%	50.2%
FY2014	404	226	178	55.9%	44.1%
FY2015	405	237	168	58.5%	41.5%
FY2016	397	234	163	58.9%	41.1%
FY2017	344	202	142	58.7%	41.3%
FY2018	305	174	131	57.0%	43.0%
FY2019	300	183	117	61.0%	39.0%
FY2020	330	176	154	53.3%	46.7%
FY2021	363	216	147	59.5%	40.5%
FY2022	380	206	174	54.2%	45.8%
FY2023	335	215	120	64.2%	35.8%
FY2024	380	180	200	47.4%	52.6%
FY2025	350	180	170	51.4%	48.6%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	271	143	128	52.8%	47.2%
FY2007	270	96	174	35.6%	64.4%
FY2008	278	113	165	40.6%	59.4%
FY2009	272	139	133	51.1%	48.9%
FY2010	314	162	152	51.6%	48.4%
FY2011	324	150	174	46.3%	53.7%
FY2012	355	167	188	47.0%	53.0%
FY2013	390	159	231	40.8%	59.2%
FY2014	339	162	177	47.8%	52.2%
FY2015	317	150	167	47.3%	52.7%
FY2016	328	165	163	50.3%	49.7%
FY2017	301	159	142	52.8%	47.2%
FY2018	266	135	131	50.8%	49.2%
FY2019	251	134	117	53.4%	46.6%
FY2020	313	159	154	50.8%	49.2%
FY2021	353	207	146	58.6%	41.4%
FY2022	367	193	174	52.6%	47.4%
FY2023	310	190	120	61.3%	38.7%
FY2024	359	159	200	44.3%	55.7%
FY2025	293	127	166	43.3%	56.7%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	366	192	174	52.5%	47.5%
FY2023	303	183	120	60.4%	39.6%
FY2024	357	157	200	44.0%	56.0%
FY2025	278	113	165	40.6%	59.4%

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