District of South Carolina

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 591
Noncitizens, FY2025: 11%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 486
Detained, FY2025: 57.6%

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	91%535	535
Prison and alternatives	1%4	4
Probation and alternatives	1%6	6
Probation only	8%46	46

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 50 months (mean 71) for the 539 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	37%218	218
Firearms	20%118	118
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	18%107	107
Immigration	8%49	49
Money Launder	3%18	18
Sex Abuse	3%15	15
Child Pornography	2%10	10
Robbery	2%10	10
Murder	1%7	7
Stalking/Harassing	1%5	5
Tax	1%5	5
Administration of Justice	1%4	4
Assault	1%4	4
Kidnapping	1%4	4
Environmental	1%3	3
Bribery/Corruption	<1%2	2
Commercialized Vice	<1%2	2
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%2	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%2	2
Arson	<1%1	1
Burglary/Trespass	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1
Manslaughter	<1%1	1
Other	<1%1	1
Prison Offenses	<1%1	1

All 591 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	291	299	201	260	277	309	234	218
Firearms	245	243	117	108	108	141	143	118
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	110	156	54	52	80	59	76	107
Immigration	146	158	125	22	10	21	24	49
Money Launder	14	29	13	15	21	11	8	18
Sex Abuse	19	14	3	7	22	18	17	15
Robbery	22	30	11	4	7	12	9	10
Child Pornography	24	13	4	11	12	14	7	10
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	20	28	14	13	5	3	4	2
Assault	15	16	3	4	8	9	6	4
Tax	10	13	8	4	13	7	3	5
Murder	4	6	1	1	0	19	11	7
Administration of Justice	7	12	3	6	9	2	4	4
Bribery/Corruption	3	5	8	3	10	3	1	2
Commercialized Vice	5	5	0	8	1	1	7	2
Stalking/Harassing	3	5	1	2	4	2	3	5
Environmental	1	8	2	0	1	2	3	3
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	7	4	1	1	1	1	3	2
Prison Offenses	1	4	0	2	6	2	2	1
Extortion/Racketeering	9	3	1	0	1	1	0	0
Kidnapping	2	2	0	4	2	0	1	4
Drug Possession	1	2	0	2	0	4	1	0
Individual Rights	2	0	2	1	2	1	0	1
Other	2	2	0	0	2	1	0	1
Arson	1	0	2	1	0	1	1	1
National Defense	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
Burglary/Trespass	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Food and Drug	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
All offenses	966	1,058	575	531	602	644	571	591

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	89%526	526
Not a U.S. citizen	11%65	65
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

49 of the 591 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black, 18 placed by CrimeDB	56%333	333
White+MENA, 9 placed by CrimeDB	29%170	170
Hispanic, 4 placed by CrimeDB	13%77	77
Asian+NHPI	1%7	7
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 591 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 31 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	38%224	224
II	14%83	83
III	18%104	104
IV	8%49	49
V	7%39	39
VI	15%90	90
Category not known	<1%2	2

All 591 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	36%210	210
Above the range	3%18	18
Below the range, government-sponsored	28%164	164
Below the range, not government-sponsored	33%197	197
Not known or not comparable	<1%2	2

All 591 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	486	280	206	57.6%	42.4%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	433	228	205	52.7%	47.3%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	414	208	206	50.2%	49.8%

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 South Carolina, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	1,022	945	65	12	26
FY2003	1,053	910	122	21	121
FY2004	1,203	1,074	107	22	50
FY2005	999	921	73	5	34
FY2006	1,141	1,031	103	7	43
FY2007	1,129	920	189	20	98
FY2008	1,212	1,010	191	11	66
FY2009	1,140	986	150	4	35
FY2010	1,250	1,048	186	16	58
FY2011	1,048	883	165	0	69
FY2012	925	790	132	3	53
FY2013	813	635	178	0	85
FY2014	752	623	129	0	84
FY2015	642	491	149	2	94
FY2016	627	500	127	0	82
FY2017	709	604	105	0	76
FY2018	966	777	189	0	146
FY2019	1,058	837	221	0	158
FY2020	575	429	146	0	125
FY2021	531	490	41	0	22
FY2022	602	560	41	1	10
FY2023	644	597	47	0	21
FY2024	571	534	37	0	24
FY2025	591	526	65	0	49

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 South Carolina, 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	1,022	754	41	72	134	5	16	79%	7
FY2003*	1,053	786	36	95	120	12	4	78%	5
FY2004	1,203	857	38	73	227	2	6	75%	20
FY2005*	999	776	32	69	120	2	0	81%	9
FY2006	1,141	895	41	86	119	0	0	82%	11
FY2007	1,129	925	41	66	93	1	3	86%	12
FY2008*	1,212	1,023	36	65	86	1	1	87%	8
FY2009	1,140	926	31	59	124	0	0	84%	5
FY2010*	1,250	1,009	43	63	133	1	1	84%	5
FY2011	1,048	870	41	50	85	2	0	87%	4
FY2012	925	755	36	58	76	0	0	86%	4
FY2013	813	663	24	43	83	0	0	85%	3
FY2014	752	623	23	46	60	0	0	86%	3
FY2015	642	530	26	28	57	1	0	87%	3
FY2016	627	518	18	32	59	0	0	85%	2
FY2017	709	615	17	23	54	0	0	89%	4
FY2018	966	864	21	29	52	0	0	92%	3
FY2019*	1,058	948	25	23	61	1	0	92%	2
FY2020	575	527	12	7	29	0	0	94%	1
FY2021	531	478	7	13	33	0	0	91%	0
FY2022	602	524	9	18	51	0	0	89%	2
FY2023	644	585	6	8	45	0	0	92%	3
FY2024*	571	506	5	9	51	0	0	89%	0
FY2025	591	535	4	6	46	0	0	91%	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 South Carolina, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	69	33	1,005	86	57	793
FY2003*	67	27	1,048	87	51	807
FY2004	71	30	1,197	96	60	883
FY2005*	80	39	998	99	60	802
FY2006	78	40	1,141	96	60	921
FY2007	78	41	1,125	92	60	952
FY2008*	74	45	1,211	86	60	1,041
FY2009	79	46	1,140	95	65	944
FY2010*	74	46	1,250	89	63	1,033
FY2011	72	45	1,048	84	60	890
FY2012	69	37	925	83	60	762
FY2013	65	30	813	79	48	664
FY2014	62	32	752	75	48	615
FY2015	54	24	642	65	35	524
FY2016	52	24	627	65	41	499
FY2017	62	40	709	73	51	596
FY2018	66	39	966	72	48	885
FY2019*	60	34	1,058	65	40	973
FY2020	59	27	575	63	31	539
FY2021	63	46	531	68	57	485
FY2022	70	60	602	79	60	533
FY2023	72	57	644	78	60	591
FY2024*	72	55	571	81	60	511
FY2025	65	42	591	71	50	539

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 South Carolina by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	418	330	376	337	443	384	440	383
Firearms	118	163	237	214	221	246	285	288
Fraud	144	139	278	136	160	179	158	190
Forgery/Counterfeiting	113	81	54	83	86	79	87	61
Immigration	26	121	50	34	43	98	66	35
Robbery	48	46	40	43	25	22	23	28
Larceny	33	33	24	19	19	17	23	34
Pornography/Prostitution	11	14	18	30	23	14	24	15
Administration of Justice	11	17	23	18	24	13	16	17
Embezzlement	25	17	22	16	12	15	13	19
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	18	18	11	15	15	21	17	21
Money Laundering	12	4	5	10	11	0	13	6
Prison Offenses	6	10	14	7	7	5	4	1
Racketeering/Extortion	2	5	6	6	9	6	3	12
Drugs - Simple Possession	7	6	9	7	7	5	5	1
Tax Offenses	2	3	7	2	9	8	7	6
Assault	4	6	8	2	2	3	7	9
Auto Theft	8	5	7	3	8	2	0	2
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	1	5	7	9	5	5
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	13	1	6	1	0	1	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	1	3	4	2	1	0	2
Sexual Abuse	0	4	1	0	0	0	5	3
Arson	1	5	1	0	0	1	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	3	3	2	0	1	0	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	3	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Bribery	2	0	1	1	0	1	2	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	1	0	0	3	0	1	0
Murder	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Offense type not known	4	7	4	1	0	0	0	0
All offenses	1,022	1,053	1,203	999	1,141	1,129	1,212	1,140

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 South Carolina by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	475	369	331	274	235	182	166	223
Firearms	245	235	156	119	111	78	109	179
Fraud	185	165	183	135	143	124	121	93
Immigration	58	69	53	85	84	94	82	76
Forgery/Counterfeiting	62	57	61	44	24	32	26	24
Child Pornography	29	24	17	16	21	21	19	25
Larceny	35	19	19	17	14	10	10	6
Administration of Justice	23	11	14	23	14	22	5	16
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	17	9	13	13	11	11	24	6
Embezzlement	19	10	12	19	4	10	11	5
Money Laundering	17	7	3	9	5	14	19	7
Racketeering/Extortion	4	4	8	23	20	2	8	12
Robbery	15	15	17	7	8	4	6	6
Tax Offenses	21	8	11	6	9	5	5	4
Assault	9	15	6	7	6	4	4	5
Prison Offenses	1	7	6	3	10	4	4	4
Drugs - Communication Facilities	4	9	6	3	4	2	2	3
Gambling/Lottery	15	0	2	3	5	4	1	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	4	4	5	1	2	6	0	2
Sexual Abuse	2	1	0	1	5	3	1	4
Bribery	1	3	1	3	5	1	0	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	1	1	0	3	2	1	4
Food and Drug Offenses	2	0	0	0	6	0	2	0
Auto Theft	2	3	0	1	0	1	0	1
Murder	1	2	0	0	3	1	1	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
Arson	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	1,250	1,048	925	813	752	642	627	709

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 South Carolina by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	218	37%
Firearms	118	20%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	107	18%
Immigration	49	8%
Money Launder	18	3%
Sex Abuse	15	3%
Child Pornography	10	2%
Robbery	10	2%
Murder	7	1%
Stalking/Harassing	5	1%
Tax	5	1%
Administration of Justice	4	1%
Assault	4	1%
Kidnapping	4	1%
Environmental	3	1%
Bribery/Corruption	2	<1%
Commercialized Vice	2	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	2	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	<1%
Arson	1	<1%
Burglary/Trespass	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%
Manslaughter	1	<1%
Other	1	<1%
Prison Offenses	1	<1%

All 591 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 South Carolina by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Black	333	18	56%
White+MENA	170	9	29%
Hispanic	77	4	13%
Asian+NHPI	7	0	1%
Race unknown	4	0	1%

All 591 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 31 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 South Carolina by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	224	38%
II	83	14%
III	104	18%
IV	49	8%
V	39	7%
VI	90	15%
Category not known	2	<1%

All 591 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 South Carolina against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	210	36%
Above the range	18	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	164	28%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	197	33%
Not known or not comparable	2	<1%

All 591 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 South Carolina, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	1,100	430	670	39.1%	60.9%
FY2007	1,210	568	642	46.9%	53.1%
FY2008	1,019	421	598	41.3%	58.7%
FY2009	1,201	522	679	43.5%	56.5%
FY2010	1,121	488	633	43.5%	56.5%
FY2011	1,051	430	621	40.9%	59.1%
FY2012	924	431	493	46.6%	53.4%
FY2013	823	401	422	48.7%	51.3%
FY2014	650	350	300	53.8%	46.2%
FY2015	677	374	303	55.2%	44.8%
FY2016	738	378	360	51.2%	48.8%
FY2017	907	567	340	62.5%	37.5%
FY2018	820	483	337	58.9%	41.1%
FY2019	750	416	334	55.5%	44.5%
FY2020	492	287	205	58.3%	41.7%
FY2021	558	295	263	52.9%	47.1%
FY2022	527	290	237	55.0%	45.0%
FY2023	518	283	235	54.6%	45.4%
FY2024	498	257	241	51.6%	48.4%
FY2025	486	280	206	57.6%	42.4%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	1,065	399	666	37.5%	62.5%
FY2007	1,111	478	633	43.0%	57.0%
FY2008	999	402	597	40.2%	59.8%
FY2009	1,155	481	674	41.6%	58.4%
FY2010	1,053	423	630	40.2%	59.8%
FY2011	1,007	387	620	38.4%	61.6%
FY2012	864	371	493	42.9%	57.1%
FY2013	733	317	416	43.2%	56.8%
FY2014	545	246	299	45.1%	54.9%
FY2015	599	299	300	49.9%	50.1%
FY2016	681	324	357	47.6%	52.4%
FY2017	810	470	340	58.0%	42.0%
FY2018	749	413	336	55.1%	44.9%
FY2019	605	273	332	45.1%	54.9%
FY2020	420	217	203	51.7%	48.3%
FY2021	548	285	263	52.0%	48.0%
FY2022	515	279	236	54.2%	45.8%
FY2023	495	260	235	52.5%	47.5%
FY2024	464	226	238	48.7%	51.3%
FY2025	433	228	205	52.7%	47.3%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	505	272	233	53.9%	46.1%
FY2023	492	257	235	52.2%	47.8%
FY2024	467	227	240	48.6%	51.4%
FY2025	414	208	206	50.2%	49.8%

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