Middle District of Alabama

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 263
Noncitizens, FY2025: 20%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 283
Detained, FY2025: 65.4%

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	95%249	249
Prison and alternatives	2%4	4
Probation and alternatives	<1%1	1
Probation only	3%9	9

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 46 months (mean 74) for the 253 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	33%86	86
Firearms	27%72	72
Immigration	17%45	45
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	10%27	27
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	3%7	7
Money Launder	2%6	6
Assault	2%4	4
Child Pornography	1%3	3
Robbery	1%3	3
Sex Abuse	1%3	3
Other	1%2	2
Tax	1%2	2
Administration of Justice	<1%1	1
Arson	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1

All 263 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the Middle District of Alabama by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Firearms	65	74	42	52	53	84	89	72
Drug Trafficking	49	62	29	32	58	66	98	86
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	44	37	15	9	18	18	35	27
Immigration	32	38	23	2	0	1	2	45
Robbery	3	3	4	10	3	7	8	3
Other	10	12	3	3	3	4	1	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	4	4	3	1	3	8	5	7
Sex Abuse	2	3	2	0	9	4	8	3
Money Launder	5	8	1	4	0	1	2	6
Child Pornography	2	7	3	3	1	3	1	3
Assault	3	3	1	0	4	2	3	4
Tax	0	2	3	0	3	3	3	2
Drug Possession	3	3	1	1	4	1	1	0
Individual Rights	2	1	0	0	4	2	3	1
Administration of Justice	5	1	2	1	0	1	1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	3	0	5	2	0	0	2	0
Prison Offenses	6	0	1	1	0	1	0	0
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	0	7	0	0
Arson	0	1	0	0	0	2	2	1
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0
Stalking/Harassing	0	0	1	1	0	0	2	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	238	260	140	122	164	218	272	263

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	80%211	211
Not a U.S. citizen	20%52	52
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

45 of the 263 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black	66%173	173
Hispanic	18%48	48
White+MENA	12%31	31
Race unknown	4%11	11

All 263 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	47%124	124
II	15%39	39
III	11%30	30
IV	9%24	24
V	5%12	12
VI	13%33	33
Category not known	<1%1	1

All 263 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	49%130	130
Above the range	7%17	17
Below the range, government-sponsored	19%50	50
Below the range, not government-sponsored	25%66	66

All 263 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	283	185	98	65.4%	34.6%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	238	140	98	58.8%	41.2%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	220	123	97	55.9%	44.1%

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 Middle District of Alabama, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	158	151	5	2	0
FY2003	178	171	4	3	2
FY2004	179	164	11	4	6
FY2005	215	186	27	2	10
FY2006	252	214	38	0	21
FY2007	243	201	41	1	23
FY2008	269	251	13	5	5
FY2009	236	212	23	1	11
FY2010	243	202	40	1	15
FY2011	230	191	38	1	17
FY2012	211	177	33	1	23
FY2013	236	189	47	0	36
FY2014	223	178	45	0	40
FY2015	201	170	29	2	25
FY2016	157	138	15	4	7
FY2017	203	190	13	0	8
FY2018	238	202	36	0	32
FY2019	260	216	44	0	38
FY2020	140	116	24	0	23
FY2021	122	115	7	0	2
FY2022	164	164	0	0	0
FY2023	218	208	10	0	1
FY2024	272	266	6	0	2
FY2025	263	211	52	0	45

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 Middle District of Alabama, 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	158	125	3	12	15	1	2	82%	0
FY2003*	178	127	3	10	34	3	1	73%	0
FY2004	179	108	9	17	40	3	2	66%	1
FY2005*	215	174	6	10	24	0	1	84%	0
FY2006	252	195	3	14	40	0	0	79%	0
FY2007	243	200	6	9	27	1	0	85%	0
FY2008*	269	199	1	15	52	2	0	74%	1
FY2009	236	197	4	10	24	1	0	85%	0
FY2010*	243	179	8	11	44	1	0	77%	1
FY2011	230	160	7	16	45	2	0	73%	0
FY2012	211	151	16	12	32	0	0	79%	0
FY2013	236	166	8	19	42	1	0	74%	1
FY2014	223	183	3	11	26	0	0	83%	0
FY2015	201	157	11	13	20	0	0	84%	0
FY2016	157	128	5	6	18	0	0	85%	0
FY2017	203	165	10	5	23	0	0	86%	1
FY2018	238	188	19	8	23	0	0	87%	1
FY2019*	260	212	10	6	31	1	0	85%	0
FY2020	140	122	7	2	9	0	0	92%	0
FY2021	122	109	2	2	9	0	0	91%	0
FY2022	164	128	4	1	31	0	0	80%	0
FY2023	218	192	4	6	15	1	0	90%	0
FY2024*	272	248	3	3	18	0	0	92%	2
FY2025	263	249	4	1	9	0	0	96%	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 Middle District of Alabama, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	59	46	156	71	57	128
FY2003*	58	30	177	79	51	130
FY2004	48	13	175	73	37	114
FY2005*	54	37	214	65	46	178
FY2006	54	30	252	68	43	198
FY2007	55	30	243	64	37	206
FY2008*	58	36	269	78	54	199
FY2009	63	37	236	73	50	201
FY2010*	54	30	243	70	55	185
FY2011	45	24	230	63	45	164
FY2012	49	24	211	60	37	167
FY2013	46	15	236	62	30	173
FY2014	47	24	223	56	42	185
FY2015	52	24	201	62	36	168
FY2016	47	30	157	56	40	131
FY2017	52	24	203	59	30	175
FY2018	44	20	238	50	29	207
FY2019*	55	33	260	64	44	222
FY2020	51	25	140	55	30	129
FY2021	63	49	122	69	60	111
FY2022	79	46	164	97	63	132
FY2023	73	51	218	80	60	196
FY2024*	81	60	272	87	60	251
FY2025	71	45	263	74	46	253

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 Middle District of Alabama by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	92	64	43	60	71	60	73	71
Firearms	10	30	54	67	77	68	76	59
Fraud	6	7	20	21	15	30	27	26
Larceny	10	25	21	8	24	11	31	10
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	4	10	16	15	9	8	14	14
Immigration	0	2	6	10	21	23	5	11
Robbery	9	16	3	6	6	4	10	6
Pornography/Prostitution	7	1	1	8	6	8	5	9
Embezzlement	4	4	1	3	2	4	14	7
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	6	1	8	4	3	4	9
Forgery/Counterfeiting	0	1	5	1	6	11	1	2
Administration of Justice	1	4	1	2	6	3	1	4
Money Laundering	5	2	2	3	0	1	0	0
Tax Offenses	2	0	1	0	1	3	0	2
Prison Offenses	2	1	1	1	0	0	2	0
Assault	3	0	2	0	0	0	0	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	3
Racketeering/Extortion	0	1	1	1	0	3	0	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	1
Bribery	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Offense type not known	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	158	178	179	215	252	243	269	236

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 Middle District of Alabama by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	71	58	39	29	37	31	24	44
Fraud	21	27	40	62	57	47	30	26
Firearms	52	38	29	26	22	35	42	57
Immigration	15	17	23	36	40	25	7	8
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	14	39	16	13	14	10	8	6
Administration of Justice	4	8	13	15	9	14	10	19
Larceny	19	15	11	10	11	1	4	3
Forgery/Counterfeiting	12	5	7	10	6	6	8	4
Child Pornography	9	5	3	15	13	6	4	2
Prison Offenses	2	2	1	0	0	9	4	23
Tax Offenses	2	3	10	5	1	4	0	4
Robbery	7	1	3	5	1	2	7	2
Embezzlement	8	5	3	1	1	1	1	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	3	1	1	3	0	2	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	4	0	1	1	0	3	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	2	1	4	0	1	0
Assault	0	1	1	2	0	0	2	1
Bribery	0	0	2	2	1	0	1	0
Money Laundering	0	0	3	0	0	0	1	2
Sexual Abuse	2	0	1	0	1	1	1	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Murder	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
All offenses	243	230	211	236	223	201	157	203

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 Middle District of Alabama by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	86	33%
Firearms	72	27%
Immigration	45	17%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	27	10%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	7	3%
Money Launder	6	2%
Assault	4	2%
Child Pornography	3	1%
Robbery	3	1%
Sex Abuse	3	1%
Other	2	1%
Tax	2	1%
Administration of Justice	1	<1%
Arson	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%

All 263 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 Middle District of Alabama by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
Black	173	66%
Hispanic	48	18%
White+MENA	31	12%
Race unknown	11	4%

All 263 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 Middle District of Alabama by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	124	47%
II	39	15%
III	30	11%
IV	24	9%
V	12	5%
VI	33	13%
Category not known	1	<1%

All 263 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 Middle District of Alabama against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	130	49%
Above the range	17	7%
Below the range, government-sponsored	50	19%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	66	25%

All 263 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 Middle District of Alabama, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	226	80	146	35.4%	64.6%
FY2007	231	94	137	40.7%	59.3%
FY2008	211	69	142	32.7%	67.3%
FY2009	219	98	121	44.7%	55.3%
FY2010	152	62	90	40.8%	59.2%
FY2011	164	37	127	22.6%	77.4%
FY2012	202	59	143	29.2%	70.8%
FY2013	237	91	146	38.4%	61.6%
FY2014	159	54	105	34.0%	66.0%
FY2015	139	52	87	37.4%	62.6%
FY2016	136	50	86	36.8%	63.2%
FY2017	143	51	92	35.7%	64.3%
FY2018	224	88	136	39.3%	60.7%
FY2019	108	55	53	50.9%	49.1%
FY2020	109	51	58	46.8%	53.2%
FY2021	160	34	126	21.3%	78.8%
FY2022	172	63	109	36.6%	63.4%
FY2023	151	69	82	45.7%	54.3%
FY2024	183	92	91	50.3%	49.7%
FY2025	283	185	98	65.4%	34.6%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	222	76	146	34.2%	65.8%
FY2007	222	85	137	38.3%	61.7%
FY2008	208	66	142	31.7%	68.3%
FY2009	212	91	121	42.9%	57.1%
FY2010	138	48	90	34.8%	65.2%
FY2011	153	27	126	17.6%	82.4%
FY2012	187	44	143	23.5%	76.5%
FY2013	204	58	146	28.4%	71.6%
FY2014	141	36	105	25.5%	74.5%
FY2015	133	48	85	36.1%	63.9%
FY2016	130	44	86	33.8%	66.2%
FY2017	138	46	92	33.3%	66.7%
FY2018	206	71	135	34.5%	65.5%
FY2019	95	44	51	46.3%	53.7%
FY2020	106	48	58	45.3%	54.7%
FY2021	160	34	126	21.3%	78.8%
FY2022	171	62	109	36.3%	63.7%
FY2023	151	69	82	45.7%	54.3%
FY2024	180	89	91	49.4%	50.6%
FY2025	238	140	98	58.8%	41.2%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	171	63	108	36.8%	63.2%
FY2023	151	69	82	45.7%	54.3%
FY2024	179	88	91	49.2%	50.8%
FY2025	220	123	97	55.9%	44.1%

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