Middle District of Tennessee

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 346
Noncitizens, FY2025: 10%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 272
Detained, FY2025: 72.8%

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	77%268	268
Prison and alternatives	11%39	39
Probation and alternatives	<1%1	1
Probation only	8%28	28
Fine only	3%10	10

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 60 months (mean 81) for the 307 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
Firearms	34%117	117
Drug Trafficking	27%94	94
Robbery	6%19	19
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	5%16	16
Immigration	4%15	15
Other	4%14	14
Assault	4%12	12
Money Launder	4%12	12
Sex Abuse	3%11	11
Child Pornography	3%9	9
Stalking/Harassing	2%7	7
Administration of Justice	1%4	4
Murder	1%3	3
Bribery/Corruption	1%2	2
Extortion/Racketeering	1%2	2
Kidnapping	1%2	2
National Defense	1%2	2
Prison Offenses	1%2	2
Tax	1%2	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1

All 346 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Firearms	48	73	78	99	130	101	107	117
Drug Trafficking	76	88	60	79	62	71	88	94
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	65	30	19	15	7	13	12	16
Robbery	17	17	18	21	20	19	18	19
Immigration	32	46	18	3	11	4	6	15
Other	25	18	7	13	16	21	13	14
Money Launder	10	5	2	3	0	10	26	12
Assault	4	10	8	5	9	9	7	12
Sex Abuse	3	6	4	1	8	14	5	11
Murder	3	4	7	3	5	3	17	3
Drug Possession	16	12	4	0	4	0	1	0
Child Pornography	2	4	1	1	2	4	4	9
Administration of Justice	5	6	1	1	2	3	2	4
Stalking/Harassing	2	0	3	2	2	3	4	7
Tax	3	1	0	2	1	1	7	2
Prison Offenses	2	1	0	3	1	1	4	2
Individual Rights	2	1	0	1	0	2	7	0
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	1	2	0	3	2	1	1
Bribery/Corruption	2	1	1	0	0	2	1	2
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	1	3	2	2
Extortion/Racketeering	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	2
Arson	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0
National Defense	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2
Commercialized Vice	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Environmental	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	321	324	235	254	289	288	333	346

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	86%297	297
Not a U.S. citizen	10%35	35
Citizenship not known	4%14	14

15 of the 346 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black	52%179	179
White+MENA	29%101	101
Hispanic	13%45	45
Asian+NHPI	1%5	5
Race unknown	5%16	16

All 346 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	33%114	114
II	10%35	35
III	12%43	43
IV	7%23	23
V	11%39	39
VI	23%79	79
Category not known	4%13	13

All 346 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	23%80	80
Above the range	4%12	12
Below the range, government-sponsored	43%147	147
Below the range, not government-sponsored	28%96	96
Not known or not comparable	3%11	11

All 346 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	272	198	74	72.8%	27.2%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	254	180	74	70.9%	29.1%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	230	156	74	67.8%	32.2%

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 Tennessee, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	323	277	37	9	18
FY2003	276	211	61	4	23
FY2004	308	238	53	17	29
FY2005	385	296	65	24	27
FY2006	296	221	60	15	19
FY2007	317	241	43	33	21
FY2008	308	213	76	19	36
FY2009	320	237	68	15	44
FY2010	309	244	49	16	25
FY2011	347	288	53	6	20
FY2012	332	273	43	16	18
FY2013	296	232	51	13	22
FY2014	291	220	63	8	18
FY2015	272	217	51	4	19
FY2016	220	175	38	7	18
FY2017	269	194	50	25	27
FY2018	321	223	52	46	32
FY2019	324	221	75	28	46
FY2020	235	195	33	7	18
FY2021	254	221	21	12	3
FY2022	289	251	23	15	11
FY2023	288	247	23	18	4
FY2024	333	294	27	12	6
FY2025	346	297	35	14	15

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 Tennessee, 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	323	220	57	20	17	2	7	88%	2
FY2003*	276	175	58	17	22	4	0	84%	1
FY2004	308	198	51	29	26	3	1	81%	4
FY2005*	385	214	93	31	38	7	2	80%	3
FY2006	296	210	38	18	25	5	0	84%	1
FY2007	317	220	29	31	21	15	1	79%	0
FY2008*	308	220	29	23	22	14	0	81%	2
FY2009	320	240	38	13	20	8	1	87%	1
FY2010*	309	242	30	14	18	5	0	88%	1
FY2011	347	279	36	11	14	4	3	92%	0
FY2012	332	274	26	17	13	2	0	90%	5
FY2013	296	248	25	9	10	4	0	92%	2
FY2014	291	239	24	10	8	10	0	90%	2
FY2015	272	213	21	14	20	4	0	86%	2
FY2016	220	181	17	5	14	3	0	90%	1
FY2017	269	211	25	9	7	17	0	88%	0
FY2018	321	242	17	9	24	29	0	81%	0
FY2019*	324	269	25	5	9	16	0	91%	0
FY2020	235	206	19	1	4	5	0	96%	0
FY2021	254	231	10	4	4	5	0	95%	0
FY2022	289	265	12	4	5	3	0	96%	1
FY2023	288	271	7	0	7	3	0	97%	1
FY2024*	333	259	43	6	23	2	0	91%	6
FY2025	346	268	39	1	28	10	0	89%	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 Tennessee, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	59	36	316	66	41	277
FY2003*	60	34	276	69	42	233
FY2004	65	41	306	79	53	247
FY2005*	67	41	382	83	51	305
FY2006	65	37	296	77	47	246
FY2007	50	35	316	62	46	247
FY2008*	55	36	308	66	48	248
FY2009	60	37	320	70	50	271
FY2010*	61	46	309	70	57	262
FY2011	61	46	344	68	57	302
FY2012	79	52	332	88	60	296
FY2013	66	46	296	74	48	261
FY2014	65	36	291	75	46	248
FY2015	59	34	272	70	41	225
FY2016	56	30	220	65	39	186
FY2017	61	24	269	75	37	215
FY2018	52	25	321	63	41	259
FY2019*	63	36	324	69	39	294
FY2020	79	46	235	83	50	225
FY2021	63	48	254	67	50	241
FY2022	72	54	289	75	60	277
FY2023	77	60	288	79	60	278
FY2024*	81	50	333	89	60	302
FY2025	72	60	346	81	60	307

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 Tennessee by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	132	100	115	126	81	71	88	87
Firearms	33	50	47	93	66	67	66	73
Fraud	30	19	35	26	50	33	28	34
Immigration	18	23	29	27	19	21	36	44
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	16	16	16	38	10	36	25	20
Robbery	19	13	7	12	7	16	10	10
Forgery/Counterfeiting	11	14	13	7	6	3	4	5
Larceny	9	3	10	12	7	9	5	3
Money Laundering	12	8	11	2	6	3	7	5
Administration of Justice	16	9	6	3	7	6	3	3
Pornography/Prostitution	1	4	4	6	7	9	2	5
Racketeering/Extortion	0	1	3	2	4	5	13	7
Tax Offenses	8	2	2	4	1	2	3	9
Embezzlement	2	4	1	4	3	8	2	4
Drugs - Simple Possession	3	3	1	4	1	8	3	2
Assault	0	1	2	7	2	1	1	1
Gambling/Lottery	2	2	1	0	0	0	7	0
Bribery	0	0	0	1	2	7	0	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	1	1	2	2	3	0	2	0
Auto Theft	4	1	0	1	2	1	0	0
Prison Offenses	2	0	1	1	0	1	1	3
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	3	5	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	1	0	0	4	2	1	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	2	0	0	1	5	0	0	0
Murder	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
Arson	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Offense type not known	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0
All offenses	323	276	308	385	296	317	308	320

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 Tennessee by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	74	101	96	102	87	93	65	77
Firearms	99	87	77	56	47	50	41	39
Fraud	26	49	24	30	43	44	29	40
Immigration	25	20	18	22	18	19	18	27
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	19	14	18	14	20	12	14	25
Robbery	14	17	23	16	7	10	8	10
Child Pornography	7	13	14	7	10	7	5	8
Administration of Justice	3	10	11	13	8	4	7	8
Racketeering/Extortion	1	2	28	11	8	6	1	1
Larceny	8	8	4	2	12	6	5	6
Forgery/Counterfeiting	8	8	7	1	3	2	4	5
Money Laundering	3	5	2	1	10	4	3	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	6	2	1	2	2	2	3	5
Embezzlement	4	4	1	4	2	2	1	2
Prison Offenses	0	0	1	5	4	3	1	5
Tax Offenses	4	2	3	2	1	1	1	5
Assault	1	0	1	0	2	1	4	5
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	1	0	1	2	2	1	0
Sexual Abuse	2	1	1	1	3	1	0	0
Bribery	0	1	2	2	0	0	1	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	3	1	1	1	0
National Defense Offenses	1	1	0	0	0	0	4	0
Food and Drug Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Arson	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	309	347	332	296	291	272	220	269

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 Tennessee by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Firearms	117	34%
Drug Trafficking	94	27%
Robbery	19	6%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	16	5%
Immigration	15	4%
Other	14	4%
Assault	12	4%
Money Launder	12	4%
Sex Abuse	11	3%
Child Pornography	9	3%
Stalking/Harassing	7	2%
Administration of Justice	4	1%
Murder	3	1%
Bribery/Corruption	2	1%
Extortion/Racketeering	2	1%
Kidnapping	2	1%
National Defense	2	1%
Prison Offenses	2	1%
Tax	2	1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%

All 346 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 Tennessee by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
Black	179	52%
White+MENA	101	29%
Hispanic	45	13%
Asian+NHPI	5	1%
Race unknown	16	5%

All 346 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 Tennessee by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	114	33%
II	35	10%
III	43	12%
IV	23	7%
V	39	11%
VI	79	23%
Category not known	13	4%

All 346 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 Tennessee against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	80	23%
Above the range	12	4%
Below the range, government-sponsored	147	43%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	96	28%
Not known or not comparable	11	3%

All 346 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 Tennessee, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	308	165	143	53.6%	46.4%
FY2007	312	185	127	59.3%	40.7%
FY2008	295	170	125	57.6%	42.4%
FY2009	346	204	142	59.0%	41.0%
FY2010	385	241	144	62.6%	37.4%
FY2011	383	242	141	63.2%	36.8%
FY2012	252	146	106	57.9%	42.1%
FY2013	289	159	130	55.0%	45.0%
FY2014	189	102	87	54.0%	46.0%
FY2015	197	112	85	56.9%	43.1%
FY2016	218	122	96	56.0%	44.0%
FY2017	234	153	81	65.4%	34.6%
FY2018	318	194	124	61.0%	39.0%
FY2019	304	163	141	53.6%	46.4%
FY2020	259	145	114	56.0%	44.0%
FY2021	224	151	73	67.4%	32.6%
FY2022	343	171	172	49.9%	50.1%
FY2023	243	145	98	59.7%	40.3%
FY2024	197	122	75	61.9%	38.1%
FY2025	272	198	74	72.8%	27.2%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	290	147	143	50.7%	49.3%
FY2007	287	160	127	55.7%	44.3%
FY2008	245	122	123	49.8%	50.2%
FY2009	320	179	141	55.9%	44.1%
FY2010	370	226	144	61.1%	38.9%
FY2011	364	223	141	61.3%	38.7%
FY2012	231	125	106	54.1%	45.9%
FY2013	271	141	130	52.0%	48.0%
FY2014	174	87	87	50.0%	50.0%
FY2015	184	99	85	53.8%	46.2%
FY2016	200	105	95	52.5%	47.5%
FY2017	212	131	81	61.8%	38.2%
FY2018	280	156	124	55.7%	44.3%
FY2019	277	137	140	49.5%	50.5%
FY2020	247	133	114	53.8%	46.2%
FY2021	217	144	73	66.4%	33.6%
FY2022	337	166	171	49.3%	50.7%
FY2023	240	142	98	59.2%	40.8%
FY2024	193	118	75	61.1%	38.9%
FY2025	254	180	74	70.9%	29.1%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	338	166	172	49.1%	50.9%
FY2023	239	141	98	59.0%	41.0%
FY2024	182	110	72	60.4%	39.6%
FY2025	230	156	74	67.8%	32.2%

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