Middle District of Louisiana

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 95
Noncitizens, FY2025: 39%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 136
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		97%92	92
Probation only		3%3	3

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 23 months (mean 48) for the 92 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
Immigration	35%33	33
Drug Trafficking	17%16	16
Firearms	15%14	14
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	11%10	10
Child Pornography	6%6	6
Sex Abuse	4%4	4
Money Launder	3%3	3
Administration of Justice	2%2	2
Prison Offenses	2%2	2
Robbery	2%2	2
Assault	1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1%1	1
Tax	1%1	1

All 95 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	27	59	29	29	24	34	28	16
Firearms	42	52	38	37	32	15	14	14
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	35	30	27	25	22	19	11	10
Immigration	29	27	11	0	6	9	13	33
Child Pornography	5	2	2	1	3	2	2	6
Sex Abuse	2	1	3	1	5	2	3	4
Administration of Justice	2	2	1	5	2	3	2	2
Money Launder	1	1	3	0	1	1	3	3
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	4	3	0	0	1	0	3	1
Robbery	1	0	0	1	0	2	5	2
Individual Rights	1	2	7	0	0	0	0	0
Assault	1	2	0	1	0	0	2	1
Environmental	1	2	2	0	0	0	1	0
Prison Offenses	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	2
Arson	0	0	0	0	3	1	1	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	0
Tax	0	0	0	1	0	2	1	1
Other	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
Stalking/Harassing	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	0
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
Kidnapping	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	154	186	123	103	103	96	95	95

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	61%58	58
Not a U.S. citizen	39%37	37
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

33 of the 95 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Hispanic, 1 placed by CrimeDB	41%39	39
Black	36%34	34
White+MENA	22%21	21
Asian+NHPI	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 95 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 1 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	50%47	47
II	19%18	18
III	12%11	11
IV	4%4	4
V	8%8	8
VI	7%7	7

All 95 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	61%58	58
Above the range	4%4	4
Below the range, government-sponsored	17%16	16
Below the range, not government-sponsored	17%16	16
Not known or not comparable	1%1	1

All 95 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	136	95	41	69.9%	30.1%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	106	65	41	61.3%	38.7%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	102	61	41	59.8%	40.2%

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 Louisiana, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	114	108	5	1	3
FY2003	121	90	31	0	12
FY2004	176	161	13	2	6
FY2005	160	152	8	0	1
FY2006	172	153	19	0	9
FY2007	166	149	17	0	11
FY2008	204	186	13	5	12
FY2009	176	161	15	0	11
FY2010	202	168	34	0	23
FY2011	140	117	20	3	16
FY2012	230	177	53	0	42
FY2013	194	117	75	2	65
FY2014	180	127	53	0	38
FY2015	167	121	45	1	30
FY2016	163	116	47	0	28
FY2017	171	142	29	0	22
FY2018	154	121	33	0	29
FY2019	186	143	40	3	27
FY2020	123	97	26	0	11
FY2021	103	100	3	0	0
FY2022	103	93	10	0	6
FY2023	96	85	11	0	9
FY2024	95	82	13	0	13
FY2025	95	58	37	0	33

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 Louisiana, 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	114	81	6	7	20	0	0	76%	1
FY2003*	121	91	3	5	22	0	0	78%	0
FY2004	176	133	16	7	18	1	1	85%	0
FY2005*	160	131	4	11	12	2	0	84%	1
FY2006	172	119	2	11	40	0	0	70%	0
FY2007	166	114	5	9	37	0	1	72%	0
FY2008*	204	148	5	19	32	0	0	75%	0
FY2009	176	131	4	11	30	0	0	77%	0
FY2010*	202	143	4	16	39	0	0	73%	0
FY2011	140	116	3	4	17	0	0	85%	0
FY2012	230	196	3	12	19	0	0	87%	1
FY2013	194	161	3	2	26	2	0	85%	0
FY2014	180	146	3	9	22	0	0	83%	0
FY2015	167	121	7	7	30	2	0	77%	1
FY2016	163	137	2	4	19	1	0	85%	0
FY2017	171	151	4	4	12	0	0	91%	0
FY2018	154	129	1	1	21	2	0	84%	1
FY2019*	186	163	0	0	19	4	0	88%	0
FY2020	123	108	0	2	10	3	0	88%	0
FY2021	103	91	0	0	12	0	0	88%	0
FY2022	103	87	0	0	16	0	0	84%	0
FY2023	96	91	0	0	5	0	0	95%	0
FY2024*	95	83	0	1	11	0	0	87%	0
FY2025	95	92	0	0	3	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 Middle District of Louisiana, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	36	16	114	46	30	87
FY2003*	32	15	121	41	24	94
FY2004	61	33	175	70	42	149
FY2005*	65	41	160	76	51	135
FY2006	42	21	172	59	40	121
FY2007	41	24	166	57	46	118
FY2008*	61	37	204	81	57	153
FY2009	58	37	176	75	54	135
FY2010*	47	24	202	64	46	146
FY2011	52	34	140	62	46	117
FY2012	45	30	230	54	37	191
FY2013	27	12	194	33	21	159
FY2014	40	17	180	48	33	148
FY2015	43	12	167	58	37	123
FY2016	39	15	163	49	36	128
FY2017	53	30	171	63	42	142
FY2018	45	24	154	54	30	130
FY2019*	47	30	186	54	35	163
FY2020	47	30	123	53	37	108
FY2021	53	38	103	61	46	91
FY2022	51	37	103	60	46	87
FY2023	72	47	96	76	48	91
FY2024*	54	36	95	62	47	83
FY2025	47	21	95	48	23	92

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 Louisiana by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Fraud	33	32	34	39	58	53	61	47
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	21	25	65	57	32	34	56	48
Firearms	26	23	39	42	47	42	43	40
Immigration	3	12	6	1	9	11	12	11
Administration of Justice	4	8	4	4	5	2	2	2
Larceny	6	3	4	1	1	4	5	2
Forgery/Counterfeiting	4	2	6	1	4	0	2	4
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	1	1	4	1	0	5	4	5
Pornography/Prostitution	0	1	1	3	4	1	2	6
Embezzlement	9	2	0	1	2	2	1	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	3	8	2	1	0	0	1	0
Tax Offenses	0	0	0	4	4	1	3	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	2	3	2	1	0	3	0
Prison Offenses	2	0	0	0	0	4	1	2
Bribery	0	1	3	0	1	3	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	1	1	0	3	2
Drugs - Communication Facilities	1	0	3	0	0	1	0	0
Money Laundering	0	1	0	0	1	2	0	1
Assault	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	1
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2
Robbery	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	0
Arson	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
All offenses	114	121	176	160	172	166	204	176

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 Louisiana by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	40	35	51	29	39	32	47	59
Fraud	47	32	44	47	46	37	33	27
Firearms	50	30	50	30	30	30	18	37
Immigration	23	16	42	65	38	30	28	22
Administration of Justice	4	3	8	4	4	11	0	8
Child Pornography	5	0	4	5	1	4	6	7
Forgery/Counterfeiting	2	7	6	3	4	0	4	3
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	3	2	5	2	4	6	5	1
Larceny	3	0	5	3	6	0	8	2
Embezzlement	4	1	2	1	3	4	6	1
Racketeering/Extortion	6	1	6	2	0	2	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	6	1	0	0	4	1	0
Tax Offenses	3	3	0	1	0	3	1	0
Bribery	2	0	4	0	1	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	4
Auto Theft	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Assault	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Money Laundering	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Prison Offenses	1	0	0	0	1	1	1	0
Robbery	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Murder	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	202	140	230	194	180	167	163	171

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 Louisiana by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Immigration	33	35%
Drug Trafficking	16	17%
Firearms	14	15%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	10	11%
Child Pornography	6	6%
Sex Abuse	4	4%
Money Launder	3	3%
Administration of Justice	2	2%
Prison Offenses	2	2%
Robbery	2	2%
Assault	1	1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	1%
Tax	1	1%

All 95 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 Louisiana by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Hispanic	39	1	41%
Black	34	0	36%
White+MENA	21	0	22%
Asian+NHPI	1	0	1%

All 95 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 1 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 Middle District of Louisiana by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	47	50%
II	18	19%
III	11	12%
IV	4	4%
V	8	8%
VI	7	7%

All 95 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 Louisiana against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	58	61%
Above the range	4	4%
Below the range, government-sponsored	16	17%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	16	17%
Not known or not comparable	1	1%

All 95 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 Louisiana, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	212	81	131	38.2%	61.8%
FY2007	236	87	149	36.9%	63.1%
FY2008	191	82	109	42.9%	57.1%
FY2009	165	82	83	49.7%	50.3%
FY2010	159	55	104	34.6%	65.4%
FY2011	117	43	74	36.8%	63.2%
FY2012	129	45	84	34.9%	65.1%
FY2013	184	89	95	48.4%	51.6%
FY2014	119	71	48	59.7%	40.3%
FY2015	200	109	91	54.5%	45.5%
FY2016	130	68	62	52.3%	47.7%
FY2017	136	70	66	51.5%	48.5%
FY2018	179	93	86	52.0%	48.0%
FY2019	137	78	59	56.9%	43.1%
FY2020	74	24	50	32.4%	67.6%
FY2021	73	26	47	35.6%	64.4%
FY2022	93	58	35	62.4%	37.6%
FY2023	85	45	40	52.9%	47.1%
FY2024	107	68	39	63.6%	36.4%
FY2025	136	95	41	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 Middle District of Louisiana, excluding immigration cases (Table H-14A)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	206	75	131	36.4%	63.6%
FY2007	218	69	149	31.7%	68.3%
FY2008	184	75	109	40.8%	59.2%
FY2009	154	71	83	46.1%	53.9%
FY2010	154	50	104	32.5%	67.5%
FY2011	113	39	74	34.5%	65.5%
FY2012	113	29	84	25.7%	74.3%
FY2013	141	46	95	32.6%	67.4%
FY2014	98	50	48	51.0%	49.0%
FY2015	173	82	91	47.4%	52.6%
FY2016	113	51	62	45.1%	54.9%
FY2017	117	51	66	43.6%	56.4%
FY2018	153	67	86	43.8%	56.2%
FY2019	127	68	59	53.5%	46.5%
FY2020	70	20	50	28.6%	71.4%
FY2021	72	25	47	34.7%	65.3%
FY2022	85	50	35	58.8%	41.2%
FY2023	81	41	40	50.6%	49.4%
FY2024	84	45	39	53.6%	46.4%
FY2025	106	65	41	61.3%	38.7%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	84	50	34	59.5%	40.5%
FY2023	80	40	40	50.0%	50.0%
FY2024	78	39	39	50.0%	50.0%
FY2025	102	61	41	59.8%	40.2%

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