Eastern District of Kentucky

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 390
Noncitizens, FY2025: 14%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 412
Detained, FY2025: 69.9%

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	95%372	372
Prison and alternatives	2%7	7
Probation and alternatives	2%6	6
Probation only	1%5	5

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 78 months (mean 102) for the 379 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	54%209	209
Firearms	11%44	44
Immigration	10%40	40
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	5%21	21
Sex Abuse	5%20	20
Money Launder	3%13	13
Child Pornography	3%10	10
Commercialized Vice	1%5	5
Prison Offenses	1%5	5
Assault	1%4	4
Individual Rights	1%3	3
Robbery	1%3	3
Administration of Justice	1%2	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1%2	2
Other	1%2	2
Stalking/Harassing	1%2	2
Tax	1%2	2
Arson	<1%1	1
Food and Drug	<1%1	1
Murder	<1%1	1

All 390 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	219	307	227	199	263	218	234	209
Firearms	40	48	45	47	38	55	51	44
Immigration	23	88	24	57	26	29	28	40
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	38	44	43	41	52	31	31	21
Money Launder	10	18	16	28	16	33	15	13
Sex Abuse	12	9	12	17	27	20	21	20
Child Pornography	17	5	13	10	8	7	15	10
Robbery	3	0	9	3	10	5	5	3
Prison Offenses	6	8	5	0	5	5	1	5
Assault	2	7	0	2	9	4	3	4
Individual Rights	5	1	5	3	3	0	9	3
Kidnapping	1	3	5	2	11	4	3	0
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	3	14	2	5
Administration of Justice	1	2	4	1	5	3	5	2
Stalking/Harassing	5	2	5	2	4	1	1	2
Tax	1	5	2	0	4	2	1	2
Bribery/Corruption	3	1	2	3	1	2	3	0
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	0	2	2	2	3	3	1	2
Murder	2	0	0	0	2	7	2	1
Other	0	1	3	2	2	1	3	2
Environmental	0	1	3	3	3	0	0	0
Drug Possession	2	1	2	1	1	0	0	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	2	3	0	1	0	1	0
Food and Drug	0	1	1	3	0	0	0	1
Arson	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
All offenses	392	557	431	427	497	444	437	390

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	85%333	333
Not a U.S. citizen	14%56	56
Citizenship not known	<1%1	1

40 of the 390 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	52%201	201
Black, 1 placed by CrimeDB	30%117	117
Hispanic	16%64	64
Asian+NHPI	1%4	4
AIAN	<1%1	1
Race unknown	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 390 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 2 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	37%144	144
II	13%51	51
III	16%62	62
IV	8%30	30
V	8%32	32
VI	18%71	71

All 390 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	52%203	203
Above the range	1%5	5
Below the range, government-sponsored	22%85	85
Below the range, not government-sponsored	25%97	97

All 390 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	412	288	124	69.9%	30.1%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	375	251	124	66.9%	33.1%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	355	232	123	65.4%	34.6%

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 Eastern District of Kentucky, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	484	422	35	27	12
FY2003	483	412	57	14	35
FY2004	481	407	57	17	30
FY2005	493	428	57	8	25
FY2006	530	437	77	16	51
FY2007	579	477	78	24	43
FY2008	681	557	97	27	64
FY2009	703	580	99	24	52
FY2010	637	546	66	25	35
FY2011	608	511	80	17	36
FY2012	501	415	71	15	27
FY2013	476	421	49	6	17
FY2014	598	547	44	7	14
FY2015	513	459	50	4	15
FY2016	439	387	45	7	7
FY2017	360	316	40	4	8
FY2018	392	338	52	2	23
FY2019	557	434	122	1	88
FY2020	431	369	61	1	24
FY2021	427	344	83	0	57
FY2022	497	446	51	0	26
FY2023	444	389	54	1	29
FY2024	437	389	48	0	28
FY2025	390	333	56	1	40

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 Eastern District of Kentucky, 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	484	363	19	25	63	8	6	80%	1
FY2003*	483	383	11	26	54	2	7	83%	0
FY2004	481	406	18	16	30	2	9	90%	0
FY2005*	493	415	18	21	38	1	0	88%	2
FY2006	530	447	11	28	44	0	0	86%	1
FY2007	579	479	28	29	40	1	2	88%	3
FY2008*	681	570	31	34	43	3	0	88%	3
FY2009	703	607	22	26	46	2	0	89%	1
FY2010*	637	533	26	26	52	0	0	88%	1
FY2011	608	518	22	19	49	0	0	89%	2
FY2012	501	422	23	26	28	2	0	89%	0
FY2013	476	395	36	29	16	0	0	91%	0
FY2014	598	538	23	18	19	0	0	94%	0
FY2015	513	471	17	15	10	0	0	95%	1
FY2016	439	387	19	12	21	0	0	92%	1
FY2017	360	339	11	3	7	0	0	97%	3
FY2018	392	372	8	6	6	0	0	97%	2
FY2019*	557	515	19	12	11	0	0	96%	1
FY2020	431	387	15	10	19	0	0	93%	1
FY2021	427	402	7	11	7	0	0	96%	0
FY2022	497	466	15	9	7	0	0	97%	2
FY2023	444	420	10	6	8	0	0	97%	5
FY2024*	437	424	7	1	5	0	0	99%	1
FY2025	390	372	7	6	5	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 Eastern District of Kentucky, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	36	18	478	45	24	380
FY2003*	45	21	478	54	31	391
FY2004	53	30	471	59	36	419
FY2005*	51	27	493	58	35	431
FY2006	52	30	530	61	40	448
FY2007	63	30	577	72	41	496
FY2008*	51	27	681	58	36	586
FY2009	49	25	703	57	30	602
FY2010*	56	30	637	68	42	520
FY2011	55	32	608	64	40	515
FY2012	58	37	501	67	46	425
FY2013	60	37	476	67	44	417
FY2014	62	43	598	69	51	535
FY2015	67	50	513	72	54	479
FY2016	81	57	439	89	60	398
FY2017	85	57	360	88	60	348
FY2018	103	74	392	106	79	380
FY2019*	80	51	557	83	60	534
FY2020	90	70	431	96	72	402
FY2021	79	54	427	82	60	409
FY2022	110	84	497	113	88	481
FY2023	108	78	444	111	80	430
FY2024*	104	80	437	106	80	431
FY2025	100	75	390	102	78	379

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 Eastern District of Kentucky by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	245	205	235	226	268	231	306	317
Firearms	52	77	79	77	83	110	99	102
Fraud	44	38	42	39	33	72	43	52
Immigration	12	35	30	25	51	43	64	52
Forgery/Counterfeiting	21	17	15	21	14	11	17	19
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	13	8	6	12	11	20	26	24
Pornography/Prostitution	8	7	15	17	12	22	13	25
Larceny	15	11	8	1	13	11	18	10
Prison Offenses	3	13	3	9	8	5	14	28
Administration of Justice	5	10	13	8	6	3	12	11
Robbery	10	13	5	7	3	7	7	16
Embezzlement	12	7	2	12	2	5	3	3
Assault	1	7	2	6	7	7	11	4
Racketeering/Extortion	4	4	4	7	5	2	4	6
Drugs - Simple Possession	11	6	1	1	0	7	3	4
Drugs - Communication Facilities	3	4	1	0	1	2	12	6
Sexual Abuse	2	0	1	4	1	3	12	3
Tax Offenses	0	2	3	6	3	5	5	1
Money Laundering	2	6	2	4	3	0	0	5
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	2	0	1	5	7	2	3
Civil Rights Offenses	0	3	4	2	0	1	2	5
Auto Theft	1	2	2	1	0	1	1	2
Food and Drug Offenses	1	1	0	1	0	2	3	2
Murder	2	0	0	1	1	1	0	3
Arson	3	2	0	1	0	0	1	0
Bribery	0	0	0	3	0	1	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	1	0	1	0	0	2	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Offense type not known	12	1	8	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	484	483	481	493	530	579	681	703

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 Eastern District of Kentucky by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	285	260	247	258	399	316	229	194
Firearms	98	73	58	51	51	45	43	36
Fraud	68	58	50	43	32	62	77	55
Immigration	35	36	27	17	14	15	7	8
Child Pornography	25	24	12	13	14	11	28	13
Forgery/Counterfeiting	12	35	13	8	13	6	0	8
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	15	17	24	11	7	7	7	1
Larceny	19	13	10	17	12	5	4	4
Prison Offenses	9	19	11	10	11	8	4	6
Money Laundering	7	4	4	18	9	7	6	4
Administration of Justice	7	6	6	4	10	4	6	7
Assault	20	11	7	3	3	2	3	0
Embezzlement	5	11	6	3	6	4	3	6
Robbery	8	6	6	6	4	2	3	1
Tax Offenses	0	3	3	7	2	3	3	0
Bribery	2	1	1	0	1	1	6	8
Drugs - Simple Possession	7	4	3	0	4	1	0	0
Racketeering/Extortion	1	12	1	1	1	2	0	1
Sexual Abuse	2	2	5	1	2	0	2	3
Auto Theft	4	7	0	0	0	5	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	4	1	3	0	0	0	1	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	0	2	0	1	0	1	1
Food and Drug Offenses	0	2	1	0	1	3	0	0
Arson	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	2
Murder	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	637	608	501	476	598	513	439	360

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 Eastern District of Kentucky by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	209	54%
Firearms	44	11%
Immigration	40	10%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	21	5%
Sex Abuse	20	5%
Money Launder	13	3%
Child Pornography	10	3%
Commercialized Vice	5	1%
Prison Offenses	5	1%
Assault	4	1%
Individual Rights	3	1%
Robbery	3	1%
Administration of Justice	2	1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	1%
Other	2	1%
Stalking/Harassing	2	1%
Tax	2	1%
Arson	1	<1%
Food and Drug	1	<1%
Murder	1	<1%

All 390 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 Eastern District of Kentucky by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
White+MENA	201	1	52%
Black	117	1	30%
Hispanic	64	0	16%
Asian+NHPI	4	0	1%
AIAN	1	0	<1%
Race unknown	3	0	1%

All 390 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 2 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 Eastern District of Kentucky by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	144	37%
II	51	13%
III	62	16%
IV	30	8%
V	32	8%
VI	71	18%

All 390 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 Eastern District of Kentucky against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	203	52%
Above the range	5	1%
Below the range, government-sponsored	85	22%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	97	25%

All 390 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 Eastern District of Kentucky, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	678	364	314	53.7%	46.3%
FY2007	638	307	331	48.1%	51.9%
FY2008	842	390	452	46.3%	53.7%
FY2009	679	288	391	42.4%	57.6%
FY2010	578	285	293	49.3%	50.7%
FY2011	578	282	296	48.8%	51.2%
FY2012	503	245	258	48.7%	51.3%
FY2013	634	335	299	52.8%	47.2%
FY2014	528	250	278	47.3%	52.7%
FY2015	361	180	181	49.9%	50.1%
FY2016	403	214	189	53.1%	46.9%
FY2017	352	216	136	61.4%	38.6%
FY2018	388	261	127	67.3%	32.7%
FY2019	530	370	160	69.8%	30.2%
FY2020	374	224	150	59.9%	40.1%
FY2021	357	242	115	67.8%	32.2%
FY2022	374	229	145	61.2%	38.8%
FY2023	351	237	114	67.5%	32.5%
FY2024	333	256	77	76.9%	23.1%
FY2025	412	288	124	69.9%	30.1%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	529	225	304	42.5%	57.5%
FY2007	560	231	329	41.3%	58.8%
FY2008	781	331	450	42.4%	57.6%
FY2009	652	262	390	40.2%	59.8%
FY2010	548	255	293	46.5%	53.5%
FY2011	553	257	296	46.5%	53.5%
FY2012	480	222	258	46.3%	53.8%
FY2013	621	322	299	51.9%	48.1%
FY2014	508	230	278	45.3%	54.7%
FY2015	356	175	181	49.2%	50.8%
FY2016	396	207	189	52.3%	47.7%
FY2017	345	209	136	60.6%	39.4%
FY2018	356	229	127	64.3%	35.7%
FY2019	458	298	160	65.1%	34.9%
FY2020	340	191	149	56.2%	43.8%
FY2021	312	197	115	63.1%	36.9%
FY2022	352	208	144	59.1%	40.9%
FY2023	321	207	114	64.5%	35.5%
FY2024	308	231	77	75.0%	25.0%
FY2025	375	251	124	66.9%	33.1%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	344	200	144	58.1%	41.9%
FY2023	310	196	114	63.2%	36.8%
FY2024	297	222	75	74.7%	25.3%
FY2025	355	232	123	65.4%	34.6%

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