District of the Virgin Islands

A U.S. district court in the Third Circuit. Its figures are federal cases and are never added to a state's.

People sentenced, FY2025: 59
Noncitizens, FY2025: 47%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 103
Detained, FY2025: 40.8%

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	90%53	53
Probation and alternatives	3%2	2
Probation only	7%4	4

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 41 months (mean 61) for the 53 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	58%34	34
Immigration	20%12	12
Firearms	12%7	7
Individual Rights	3%2	2
Sex Abuse	3%2	2
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	2%1	1
Stalking/Harassing	2%1	1

All 59 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	24	39	10	23	23	27	61	34
Immigration	5	10	5	5	9	10	9	12
Firearms	14	5	4	13	6	2	6	7
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	2	11	5	7	11	9	9	1
Robbery	10	3	0	0	1	6	1	0
Money Launder	0	0	3	3	2	3	2	0
Administration of Justice	1	2	1	0	2	2	4	0
Sex Abuse	0	3	0	2	1	1	0	2
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	3	4	0
Drug Possession	0	0	5	0	1	0	0	0
Environmental	0	4	0	0	0	2	0	0
Prison Offenses	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0
Assault	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Child Pornography	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Individual Rights	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Other	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Stalking/Harassing	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Arson	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
All offenses	57	86	37	56	56	67	97	59

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	53%31	31
Not a U.S. citizen	47%28	28
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

12 of the 59 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Hispanic	46%27	27
Black	44%26	26
White+MENA	9%5	5
Asian+NHPI	2%1	1

All 59 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.

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025
I	78%46	46
II	15%9	9
III	3%2	2
VI	2%1	1
Category not known	2%1	1

All 59 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	59%35	35
Above the range	5%3	3
Below the range, government-sponsored	9%5	5
Below the range, not government-sponsored	27%16	16

All 59 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	103	42	61	40.8%	59.2%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	59	21	38	35.6%	64.4%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	88	34	54	38.6%	61.4%

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 the Virgin Islands, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	87	40	45	2	30
FY2003	94	45	43	6	31
FY2004	92	42	49	1	34
FY2005	97	27	69	1	52
FY2006	117	36	80	1	62
FY2007	106	51	53	2	33
FY2008	82	58	24	0	14
FY2009	73	42	29	2	16
FY2010	76	52	22	2	9
FY2011	62	48	14	0	11
FY2012	65	47	16	2	6
FY2013	51	36	15	0	8
FY2014	62	41	21	0	14
FY2015	60	49	10	1	5
FY2016	59	46	13	0	8
FY2017	74	68	6	0	3
FY2018	57	43	13	1	5
FY2019	86	52	34	0	10
FY2020	37	32	5	0	5
FY2021	56	47	9	0	5
FY2022	56	35	21	0	9
FY2023	67	38	29	0	10
FY2024	97	46	51	0	9
FY2025	59	31	28	0	12

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 the Virgin Islands, 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	87	71	0	2	13	0	1	83%	3
FY2003*	94	81	3	3	5	1	1	90%	0
FY2004	92	77	2	1	9	2	1	87%	0
FY2005*	97	85	1	3	5	3	0	89%	0
FY2006	117	97	3	4	13	0	0	85%	0
FY2007	106	93	0	4	8	1	0	88%	4
FY2008*	82	70	2	3	6	1	0	88%	0
FY2009	73	67	2	0	4	0	0	95%	0
FY2010*	76	55	4	2	14	1	0	78%	0
FY2011	62	49	2	5	6	0	0	82%	0
FY2012	65	58	1	2	3	1	0	91%	0
FY2013	51	42	5	3	1	0	0	92%	0
FY2014	62	53	1	3	4	1	0	87%	0
FY2015	60	57	1	2	0	0	0	97%	0
FY2016	59	50	2	4	3	0	0	88%	0
FY2017	74	70	2	1	1	0	0	97%	0
FY2018	57	54	0	1	2	0	0	95%	0
FY2019*	86	76	1	3	6	0	0	90%	0
FY2020	37	33	2	0	2	0	0	95%	0
FY2021	56	49	0	1	6	0	0	88%	0
FY2022	56	47	0	2	7	0	0	84%	0
FY2023	67	57	1	2	7	0	0	87%	0
FY2024*	97	82	1	6	8	0	0	86%	3
FY2025	59	53	0	2	4	0	0	90%	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 the Virgin Islands, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	51	11	86	62	22	70
FY2003*	45	18	93	49	29	84
FY2004	29	10	91	34	16	76
FY2005*	26	7	97	30	7	85
FY2006	24	6	117	29	10	96
FY2007	45	8	106	51	11	93
FY2008*	45	21	82	51	25	72
FY2009	40	24	73	43	27	67
FY2010*	24	11	76	32	21	56
FY2011	44	17	62	54	32	50
FY2012	53	29	65	60	36	57
FY2013	42	20	51	45	21	47
FY2014	45	33	62	52	36	53
FY2015	60	32	60	63	33	57
FY2016	34	18	59	39	21	51
FY2017	44	27	74	44	27	72
FY2018	57	37	57	60	41	54
FY2019*	48	22	86	54	24	77
FY2020	21	12	37	22	12	35
FY2021	32	24	56	37	27	49
FY2022	30	20	56	36	30	47
FY2023	60	41	67	69	41	58
FY2024*	65	48	97	76	57	83
FY2025	55	37	59	61	41	53

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 the Virgin Islands by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Immigration	30	31	34	52	62	33	14	16
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	16	35	39	19	16	28	40	28
Fraud	11	11	8	8	9	25	4	6
Firearms	16	8	2	7	7	10	9	14
Drugs - Simple Possession	2	1	2	0	5	1	2	0
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	2	0	1	1	6	0	1	2
Money Laundering	0	1	0	1	5	0	3	0
Administration of Justice	0	3	2	0	1	1	1	1
Larceny	1	0	1	2	1	1	1	1
Racketeering/Extortion	3	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	1	0	1	3	0
Embezzlement	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	1	0	2	0	1	1	0
Pornography/Prostitution	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	1
Assault	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0
Bribery	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Forgery/Counterfeiting	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Prison Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Robbery	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Antitrust Violations	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Arson	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Offense type not known	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	87	94	92	97	117	106	82	73

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 the Virgin Islands by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	26	14	21	12	25	11	16	32
Firearms	18	14	16	7	11	20	17	18
Immigration	9	11	6	8	14	5	8	3
Fraud	6	3	6	14	2	3	2	1
Money Laundering	3	3	6	0	0	0	0	8
Prison Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	9	6	3
Racketeering/Extortion	0	5	2	0	2	5	0	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	4	2	2	1	3	2	0	1
Administration of Justice	1	3	1	1	1	1	2	0
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	1	0	2	1	0	1	3	1
Assault	1	2	0	3	0	0	1	1
Child Pornography	0	0	1	0	1	2	1	2
Tax Offenses	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	0
Robbery	1	0	2	0	0	1	0	0
Bribery	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Forgery/Counterfeiting	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Larceny	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Auto Theft	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Civil Rights Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	76	62	65	51	62	60	59	74

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 the Virgin Islands by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	34	58%
Immigration	12	20%
Firearms	7	12%
Individual Rights	2	3%
Sex Abuse	2	3%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	1	2%
Stalking/Harassing	1	2%

All 59 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 the Virgin Islands by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
Hispanic	27	46%
Black	26	44%
White+MENA	5	9%
Asian+NHPI	1	2%

All 59 people sentenced.

Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. White+MENA includes Middle Eastern and North African people.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

People sentenced in the District of the Virgin Islands by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	46	78%
II	9	15%
III	2	3%
VI	1	2%
Category not known	1	2%

All 59 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 the Virgin Islands against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	35	59%
Above the range	3	5%
Below the range, government-sponsored	5	9%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	16	27%

All 59 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 the Virgin Islands, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	241	158	83	65.6%	34.4%
FY2007	223	112	111	50.2%	49.8%
FY2008	152	61	91	40.1%	59.9%
FY2009	98	45	53	45.9%	54.1%
FY2010	89	46	43	51.7%	48.3%
FY2011	78	31	47	39.7%	60.3%
FY2012	74	30	44	40.5%	59.5%
FY2013	101	38	63	37.6%	62.4%
FY2014	78	39	39	50.0%	50.0%
FY2015	87	43	44	49.4%	50.6%
FY2016	98	38	60	38.8%	61.2%
FY2017	121	52	69	43.0%	57.0%
FY2018	72	49	23	68.1%	31.9%
FY2019	138	71	67	51.4%	48.6%
FY2020	88	36	52	40.9%	59.1%
FY2021	65	23	42	35.4%	64.6%
FY2022	95	41	54	43.2%	56.8%
FY2023	113	26	87	23.0%	77.0%
FY2024	71	37	34	52.1%	47.9%
FY2025	103	42	61	40.8%	59.2%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	223	140	83	62.8%	37.2%
FY2007	201	95	106	47.3%	52.7%
FY2008	145	54	91	37.2%	62.8%
FY2009	87	36	51	41.4%	58.6%
FY2010	82	40	42	48.8%	51.2%
FY2011	73	28	45	38.4%	61.6%
FY2012	68	25	43	36.8%	63.2%
FY2013	84	23	61	27.4%	72.6%
FY2014	73	37	36	50.7%	49.3%
FY2015	85	41	44	48.2%	51.8%
FY2016	96	38	58	39.6%	60.4%
FY2017	117	48	69	41.0%	59.0%
FY2018	63	41	22	65.1%	34.9%
FY2019	102	44	58	43.1%	56.9%
FY2020	72	34	38	47.2%	52.8%
FY2021	63	21	42	33.3%	66.7%
FY2022	82	36	46	43.9%	56.1%
FY2023	55	20	35	36.4%	63.6%
FY2024	68	35	33	51.5%	48.5%
FY2025	59	21	38	35.6%	64.4%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	51	12	39	23.5%	76.5%
FY2023	92	15	77	16.3%	83.7%
FY2024	61	28	33	45.9%	54.1%
FY2025	88	34	54	38.6%	61.4%

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