District of South Dakota

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 506
Noncitizens, FY2025: 10%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 599
Detained, FY2025: 68.9%

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	94%478	478
Prison and alternatives	3%15	15
Probation only	3%13	13

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 42 months (mean 82) for the 493 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	23%116	116
Firearms	17%84	84
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	11%53	53
Sex Abuse	10%51	51
Assault	9%46	46
Immigration	8%41	41
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	5%24	24
Administration of Justice	3%17	17
Child Pornography	3%17	17
Manslaughter	3%15	15
Prison Offenses	2%10	10
Money Launder	2%9	9
Robbery	1%6	6
Burglary/Trespass	1%3	3
Other	1%3	3
Arson	<1%2	2
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%2	2
Kidnapping	<1%2	2
Murder	<1%2	2
Stalking/Harassing	<1%2	2
Environmental	<1%1	1

All 506 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	96	145	147	143	184	137	166	116
Firearms	55	66	65	74	86	79	92	84
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	34	33	26	34	69	55	66	53
Sex Abuse	33	36	32	33	38	42	57	51
Assault	46	40	42	40	30	29	44	46
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	47	45	44	29	26	32	25	24
Immigration	48	42	39	20	14	35	14	41
Child Pornography	20	16	17	21	23	31	24	17
Administration of Justice	31	20	22	21	25	11	15	17
Manslaughter	7	6	8	11	9	8	21	15
Prison Offenses	6	10	6	5	13	10	15	10
Robbery	10	6	7	10	11	5	4	6
Other	4	14	4	4	3	7	4	3
Murder	9	7	3	1	7	5	8	2
Money Launder	2	0	1	2	7	14	4	9
Stalking/Harassing	7	6	13	2	3	1	3	2
Burglary/Trespass	3	7	5	4	4	4	6	3
Environmental	11	4	7	3	0	1	0	1
Drug Possession	7	0	2	4	1	0	0	0
Arson	2	2	0	1	1	2	0	2
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	2	3	0	0	1	1	2
Kidnapping	1	0	1	1	0	2	3	2
Tax	0	1	3	1	2	1	2	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0
Commercialized Vice	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Individual Rights	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	482	509	497	466	558	512	575	506

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	90%454	454
Not a U.S. citizen	10%52	52
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

41 of the 506 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
AIAN, 24 placed by CrimeDB	53%270	270
White+MENA, 16 placed by CrimeDB	23%116	116
Hispanic, 9 placed by CrimeDB	15%74	74
Black, 6 placed by CrimeDB	8%40	40
Asian+NHPI	1%5	5
Race unknown	<1%1	1

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 506 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 55 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%191	191
II	16%83	83
III	13%64	64
IV	10%51	51
V	10%51	51
VI	13%64	64
Category not known	<1%2	2

All 506 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	55%277	277
Above the range	7%37	37
Below the range, government-sponsored	9%47	47
Below the range, not government-sponsored	28%143	143
Not known or not comparable	<1%2	2

All 506 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	599	413	186	68.9%	31.1%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	573	387	186	67.5%	32.5%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	550	366	184	66.5%	33.5%

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 South Dakota, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	302	284	16	2	9
FY2003	309	265	41	3	22
FY2004	365	311	50	4	24
FY2005	447	373	72	2	29
FY2006	431	365	60	6	40
FY2007	446	385	60	1	38
FY2008	454	394	55	5	37
FY2009	512	402	110	0	80
FY2010	404	334	68	2	51
FY2011	435	344	88	3	64
FY2012	459	387	70	2	60
FY2013	547	467	74	6	62
FY2014	534	494	39	1	31
FY2015	436	401	35	0	32
FY2016	440	397	41	2	31
FY2017	496	441	53	2	39
FY2018	482	425	56	1	48
FY2019	509	444	65	0	42
FY2020	497	451	46	0	39
FY2021	466	436	30	0	20
FY2022	558	530	27	1	14
FY2023	512	465	46	1	35
FY2024	575	541	33	1	14
FY2025	506	454	52	0	41

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 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	302	218	10	17	51	4	2	76%	0
FY2003*	309	232	9	27	39	2	0	78%	1
FY2004	365	287	14	18	42	4	0	82%	2
FY2005*	447	352	8	18	65	4	0	81%	1
FY2006	431	342	6	26	53	3	1	81%	0
FY2007	446	335	13	34	60	4	0	78%	3
FY2008*	454	334	13	43	64	0	0	76%	0
FY2009	512	395	11	32	72	2	0	79%	1
FY2010*	404	311	14	32	45	2	0	80%	0
FY2011	435	332	19	27	53	4	0	81%	2
FY2012	459	337	36	28	56	2	0	81%	2
FY2013	547	384	32	21	108	1	1	76%	1
FY2014	534	379	50	19	85	1	0	80%	1
FY2015	436	298	49	12	77	0	0	80%	2
FY2016	440	362	21	7	50	0	0	87%	1
FY2017	496	403	27	8	56	2	0	87%	1
FY2018	482	420	21	4	36	1	0	91%	0
FY2019*	509	458	14	3	31	3	0	93%	1
FY2020	497	412	40	7	35	3	0	91%	4
FY2021	466	408	30	4	23	1	0	94%	1
FY2022	558	507	26	2	23	0	0	96%	3
FY2023	512	479	11	0	22	0	0	96%	4
FY2024*	575	547	12	1	15	0	0	97%	4
FY2025	506	478	15	0	13	0	0	97%	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 South Dakota, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	43	21	300	57	30	226
FY2003*	44	24	309	56	36	240
FY2004	49	24	365	59	36	301
FY2005*	51	24	447	63	37	359
FY2006	44	24	430	54	37	346
FY2007	54	28	446	68	41	348
FY2008*	45	20	453	58	36	343
FY2009	37	16	512	46	26	404
FY2010*	38	24	404	47	36	320
FY2011	42	18	435	53	30	342
FY2012	35	12	459	44	24	358
FY2013	27	10	547	37	18	392
FY2014	35	12	534	44	23	416
FY2015	33	12	436	44	24	330
FY2016	44	23	440	53	30	357
FY2017	40	15	496	49	24	401
FY2018	56	24	482	61	27	441
FY2019*	64	36	509	68	41	472
FY2020	62	30	497	68	34	452
FY2021	67	36	466	71	40	438
FY2022	77	42	558	80	46	533
FY2023	72	39	512	76	46	490
FY2024*	88	45	575	90	48	559
FY2025	80	40	506	82	42	493

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 Dakota by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	51	87	113	148	124	133	120	120
Assault	54	33	32	42	47	42	50	60
Fraud	31	25	38	55	37	36	32	27
Immigration	9	22	24	29	40	38	37	80
Sexual Abuse	29	31	34	31	34	30	39	44
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	18	17	13	22	24	49	45	56
Firearms	26	23	22	27	29	29	39	34
Larceny	28	14	26	32	22	14	23	17
Manslaughter	10	6	11	13	12	14	3	13
Embezzlement	6	5	5	2	15	9	11	7
Administration of Justice	7	6	3	6	4	4	10	7
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	3	3	4	9	6	7	5	9
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	7	8	4	6	6	8	4	2
Prison Offenses	3	8	7	2	2	7	7	7
Forgery/Counterfeiting	1	3	2	4	15	6	8	2
Pornography/Prostitution	1	1	3	2	0	9	5	14
Robbery	3	3	7	2	3	4	2	2
Murder	4	2	4	7	1	1	1	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	2	2	4	1	3	3	1
Arson	1	1	6	1	0	0	2	2
Racketeering/Extortion	7	2	1	0	1	0	1	0
Tax Offenses	0	3	0	0	1	1	5	0
Auto Theft	0	1	0	2	3	0	0	2
Bribery	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	4
Drugs - Communication Facilities	1	1	3	0	1	0	0	0
Money Laundering	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Offense type not known	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	302	309	365	447	431	446	454	512

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 Dakota by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	89	100	63	87	107	81	84	99
Assault	50	51	70	97	102	93	87	93
Immigration	51	64	60	62	31	32	31	39
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	35	47	44	59	45	47	35	32
Sexual Abuse	29	35	45	41	47	30	29	31
Firearms	33	25	19	30	28	29	51	53
Administration of Justice	17	16	27	25	39	36	34	46
Fraud	17	25	29	24	29	32	25	18
Larceny	16	12	21	21	25	8	13	13
Manslaughter	10	9	12	14	9	6	3	6
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	5	6	12	10	10	8	7	8
Child Pornography	13	10	6	4	5	4	8	8
Prison Offenses	6	3	10	13	3	5	8	9
Forgery/Counterfeiting	9	0	12	6	19	4	0	5
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	3	8	18	12	1	1	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	3	2	5	14	8	1	2	7
Embezzlement	6	3	3	4	6	2	5	9
Robbery	4	8	0	6	1	1	2	3
Murder	1	2	2	2	0	7	3	4
Tax Offenses	0	1	3	1	2	1	4	2
Arson	4	2	0	0	1	1	5	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	3	5	0	0	1	0	2
Money Laundering	1	3	0	1	1	0	2	1
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	3	0	4	0	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	3	1	1	2
Bribery	2	2	1	0	1	0	0	0
Auto Theft	1	1	1	2	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	2
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	3
Gambling/Lottery	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	404	435	459	547	534	436	440	496

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 Dakota by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	116	23%
Firearms	84	17%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	53	11%
Sex Abuse	51	10%
Assault	46	9%
Immigration	41	8%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	24	5%
Administration of Justice	17	3%
Child Pornography	17	3%
Manslaughter	15	3%
Prison Offenses	10	2%
Money Launder	9	2%
Robbery	6	1%
Burglary/Trespass	3	1%
Other	3	1%
Arson	2	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	2	<1%
Kidnapping	2	<1%
Murder	2	<1%
Stalking/Harassing	2	<1%
Environmental	1	<1%

All 506 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 Dakota by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
AIAN	270	24	53%
White+MENA	116	16	23%
Hispanic	74	9	15%
Black	40	6	8%
Asian+NHPI	5	0	1%
Race unknown	1	0	<1%

All 506 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 55 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 Dakota by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	191	38%
II	83	16%
III	64	13%
IV	51	10%
V	51	10%
VI	64	13%
Category not known	2	<1%

All 506 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 Dakota against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	277	55%
Above the range	37	7%
Below the range, government-sponsored	47	9%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	143	28%
Not known or not comparable	2	<1%

All 506 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 Dakota, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	477	251	226	52.6%	47.4%
FY2007	542	238	304	43.9%	56.1%
FY2008	498	230	268	46.2%	53.8%
FY2009	528	250	278	47.3%	52.7%
FY2010	461	241	220	52.3%	47.7%
FY2011	521	249	272	47.8%	52.2%
FY2012	589	257	332	43.6%	56.4%
FY2013	646	272	374	42.1%	57.9%
FY2014	473	192	281	40.6%	59.4%
FY2015	489	253	236	51.7%	48.3%
FY2016	532	278	254	52.3%	47.7%
FY2017	562	300	262	53.4%	46.6%
FY2018	514	316	198	61.5%	38.5%
FY2019	566	337	229	59.5%	40.5%
FY2020	525	293	232	55.8%	44.2%
FY2021	572	338	234	59.1%	40.9%
FY2022	551	354	197	64.2%	35.8%
FY2023	587	363	224	61.8%	38.2%
FY2024	529	354	175	66.9%	33.1%
FY2025	599	413	186	68.9%	31.1%

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 Dakota, excluding immigration cases (Table H-14A)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	459	233	226	50.8%	49.2%
FY2007	517	214	303	41.4%	58.6%
FY2008	474	206	268	43.5%	56.5%
FY2009	489	212	277	43.4%	56.6%
FY2010	421	201	220	47.7%	52.3%
FY2011	474	202	272	42.6%	57.4%
FY2012	543	211	332	38.9%	61.1%
FY2013	600	227	373	37.8%	62.2%
FY2014	447	167	280	37.4%	62.6%
FY2015	462	226	236	48.9%	51.1%
FY2016	501	248	253	49.5%	50.5%
FY2017	524	262	262	50.0%	50.0%
FY2018	477	279	198	58.5%	41.5%
FY2019	534	305	229	57.1%	42.9%
FY2020	488	257	231	52.7%	47.3%
FY2021	560	329	231	58.8%	41.3%
FY2022	530	337	193	63.6%	36.4%
FY2023	553	330	223	59.7%	40.3%
FY2024	519	345	174	66.5%	33.5%
FY2025	573	387	186	67.5%	32.5%

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 Dakota, excluding illegal alien cases (Table H-14B)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	528	335	193	63.4%	36.6%
FY2023	554	331	223	59.7%	40.3%
FY2024	514	339	175	66.0%	34.0%
FY2025	550	366	184	66.5%	33.5%

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