Northern District of California

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 364
Noncitizens, FY2025: 37%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 364
Detained, FY2025: 45.9%

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	91%330	330
Prison and alternatives	2%7	7
Probation and alternatives	1%2	2
Probation only	7%25	25

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 21 months (mean 39) for the 337 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	45%162	162
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	14%51	51
Firearms	14%49	49
Robbery	5%17	17
Immigration	4%15	15
Money Launder	4%14	14
Assault	3%11	11
Murder	3%10	10
Child Pornography	3%9	9
Tax	2%7	7
Sex Abuse	2%6	6
Administration of Justice	1%3	3
Stalking/Harassing	1%2	2
Arson	<1%1	1
Bribery/Corruption	<1%1	1
Burglary/Trespass	<1%1	1
Extortion/Racketeering	<1%1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1
National Defense	<1%1	1
Prison Offenses	<1%1	1

All 364 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the Northern District of California by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	145	156	211	121	129	135	212	162
Firearms	93	98	136	87	88	74	74	49
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	87	77	70	53	68	69	80	51
Immigration	35	31	33	12	9	3	2	15
Child Pornography	15	17	23	22	18	13	10	9
Robbery	15	20	12	14	10	13	6	17
Murder	10	5	9	3	2	17	28	10
Money Launder	22	14	6	7	2	8	9	14
Assault	5	2	11	10	10	12	5	11
Sex Abuse	2	14	8	4	15	14	3	6
Tax	15	16	2	4	5	5	5	7
Antitrust	48	1	1	3	0	0	0	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	2	8	8	1	4	13	1
Prison Offenses	11	10	4	7	1	0	1	1
Administration of Justice	4	5	6	2	4	3	6	3
Extortion/Racketeering	10	3	1	1	2	5	5	1
Other	4	4	5	3	4	1	6	0
Stalking/Harassing	5	2	2	0	3	1	2	2
National Defense	2	3	2	2	1	1	3	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	2	1	2	2	1	1	2	1
Arson	0	0	1	2	2	1	1	1
Environmental	2	1	1	1	0	1	0	0
Drug Possession	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	0
Food and Drug	0	0	1	1	1	2	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
Individual Rights	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Commercialized Vice	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	535	485	557	369	377	386	477	364

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	59%216	216
Not a U.S. citizen	37%136	136
Citizenship not known	3%12	12

15 of the 364 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	55%201	201
White+MENA	19%68	68
Black, 2 placed by CrimeDB	17%63	63
Asian+NHPI	8%30	30
AIAN	<1%1	1
Race unknown	<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 364 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 3 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	49%178	178
II	14%50	50
III	14%52	52
IV	4%14	14
V	8%29	29
VI	11%41	41

All 364 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	12%43	43
Above the range	2%6	6
Below the range, government-sponsored	62%225	225
Below the range, not government-sponsored	25%90	90

All 364 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	364	167	197	45.9%	54.1%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	358	162	196	45.3%	54.7%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	325	131	194	40.3%	59.7%

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 Northern District of California, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	731	442	268	21	142
FY2003	699	414	232	53	136
FY2004	707	424	228	55	142
FY2005	770	445	247	78	156
FY2006	662	409	196	57	121
FY2007	657	383	212	62	150
FY2008	718	435	219	64	180
FY2009	907	433	433	41	347
FY2010	884	473	374	37	269
FY2011	814	423	369	22	254
FY2012	752	443	287	22	192
FY2013	706	458	237	11	142
FY2014	703	516	185	2	103
FY2015	568	404	157	7	55
FY2016	464	347	115	2	47
FY2017	517	399	114	4	41
FY2018	535	430	104	1	35
FY2019	485	374	111	0	31
FY2020	557	391	159	7	33
FY2021	369	296	73	0	12
FY2022	377	307	69	1	9
FY2023	386	288	95	3	3
FY2024	477	295	139	43	2
FY2025	364	216	136	12	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 Northern District of California, 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	731	507	24	69	115	1	15	74%	1
FY2003*	699	495	31	66	83	20	4	76%	0
FY2004	707	484	46	62	107	3	5	75%	0
FY2005*	770	565	36	64	101	4	0	78%	6
FY2006	662	485	35	51	89	0	2	79%	0
FY2007	657	457	38	65	93	2	2	76%	0
FY2008*	718	523	23	72	93	5	2	76%	0
FY2009	907	759	19	46	82	1	0	86%	0
FY2010*	884	723	28	38	86	8	1	85%	1
FY2011	814	671	27	38	73	5	0	86%	2
FY2012	752	623	44	33	52	0	0	89%	8
FY2013	706	617	34	24	31	0	0	92%	0
FY2014	703	566	33	43	60	1	0	85%	1
FY2015	568	471	26	24	47	0	0	88%	2
FY2016	464	371	19	36	37	1	0	84%	2
FY2017	517	389	26	42	60	0	0	80%	2
FY2018	535	411	13	44	67	0	0	79%	2
FY2019*	485	403	24	17	41	0	0	88%	0
FY2020	557	464	25	17	50	1	0	88%	1
FY2021	369	305	10	22	31	1	0	85%	0
FY2022	377	329	8	8	32	0	0	89%	0
FY2023	386	331	14	12	29	0	0	89%	3
FY2024*	477	429	7	5	36	0	0	91%	5
FY2025	364	330	7	2	25	0	0	93%	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 Northern District of California, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	35	24	717	46	30	531
FY2003*	38	24	695	49	30	524
FY2004	34	24	702	44	30	524
FY2005*	40	24	769	51	33	590
FY2006	40	24	660	50	37	514
FY2007	36	24	655	47	33	484
FY2008*	38	24	716	50	37	535
FY2009	41	27	906	47	37	768
FY2010*	41	30	883	48	37	741
FY2011	40	27	814	47	30	680
FY2012	48	30	752	55	37	645
FY2013	47	30	706	52	37	627
FY2014	43	28	703	51	36	582
FY2015	49	30	568	56	39	487
FY2016	47	27	464	58	36	372
FY2017	46	24	517	59	37	395
FY2018	44	24	535	55	36	424
FY2019*	48	30	485	54	36	427
FY2020	34	18	557	39	24	489
FY2021	40	24	369	46	30	315
FY2022	43	30	377	48	35	337
FY2023	45	24	386	50	30	345
FY2024*	37	11	477	41	12	436
FY2025	36	18	364	39	21	337

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 Northern District of California by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Immigration	142	136	142	156	121	150	180	347
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	129	149	110	155	132	136	150	162
Fraud	103	95	109	121	109	116	130	102
Firearms	67	69	92	89	96	56	49	85
Larceny	54	43	34	36	24	25	33	32
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	26	18	34	35	21	15	13	19
Pornography/Prostitution	13	20	18	17	20	26	28	36
Robbery	31	24	24	35	16	9	8	24
Money Laundering	16	13	26	10	17	16	21	8
Racketeering/Extortion	21	16	8	17	14	16	19	7
Administration of Justice	28	9	17	20	7	7	13	6
Tax Offenses	13	9	11	13	18	16	11	15
Forgery/Counterfeiting	18	11	12	11	10	9	7	14
Drugs - Communication Facilities	11	13	8	14	16	3	17	9
Embezzlement	11	14	26	6	7	7	2	8
Drugs - Simple Possession	11	15	8	12	9	14	8	1
Prison Offenses	6	5	9	5	6	5	6	11
Assault	4	5	5	3	6	7	7	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	11	1	1	3	2	5	5	3
Antitrust Violations	0	0	1	6	4	5	2	6
Sexual Abuse	1	5	3	1	3	3	4	3
Auto Theft	6	1	3	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	2	0	0	2	2	0	4
Gambling/Lottery	2	1	0	0	0	5	1	1
Bribery	3	1	2	2	0	1	0	0
Arson	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	2	0	0	1	0	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Manslaughter	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Murder	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Offense type not known	1	20	2	2	0	2	1	0
All offenses	731	699	707	770	662	657	718	907

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 Northern District of California by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	199	157	169	217	165	167	98	122
Immigration	269	254	192	142	103	55	47	41
Fraud	116	137	116	96	114	108	83	90
Firearms	89	83	100	103	121	102	92	88
Child Pornography	16	25	10	26	26	12	19	17
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	21	14	18	19	19	20	17	18
Drugs - Communication Facilities	39	7	28	13	14	12	1	4
Tax Offenses	11	17	18	8	21	13	7	11
Racketeering/Extortion	5	14	10	17	12	15	13	19
Robbery	23	15	13	12	18	8	7	9
Larceny	21	16	9	10	20	6	7	11
Administration of Justice	16	11	16	9	17	6	5	8
Money Laundering	11	18	2	9	9	8	11	12
Prison Offenses	11	8	9	1	8	13	9	10
Forgery/Counterfeiting	6	2	14	5	11	9	3	3
Assault	6	9	7	2	4	5	7	8
Antitrust Violations	4	2	6	5	0	0	2	26
Drugs - Simple Possession	3	6	5	5	3	2	2	6
Embezzlement	3	6	2	2	6	1	1	3
Sexual Abuse	0	2	3	1	5	2	6	5
Food and Drug Offenses	3	7	2	0	4	0	5	1
Bribery	0	0	0	0	0	3	9	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	5	2	1	1	1	0	2	1
National Defense Offenses	2	0	2	1	1	1	2	1
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	1	0	0	8	0
Arson	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Auto Theft	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
All offenses	884	814	752	706	703	568	464	517

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 Northern District of California by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	162	45%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	51	14%
Firearms	49	14%
Robbery	17	5%
Immigration	15	4%
Money Launder	14	4%
Assault	11	3%
Murder	10	3%
Child Pornography	9	3%
Tax	7	2%
Sex Abuse	6	2%
Administration of Justice	3	1%
Stalking/Harassing	2	1%
Arson	1	<1%
Bribery/Corruption	1	<1%
Burglary/Trespass	1	<1%
Extortion/Racketeering	1	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%
National Defense	1	<1%
Prison Offenses	1	<1%

All 364 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 Northern District of California by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Hispanic	201	1	55%
White+MENA	68	0	19%
Black	63	2	17%
Asian+NHPI	30	0	8%
AIAN	1	0	<1%
Race unknown	1	0	<1%

All 364 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 3 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 Northern District of California by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	178	49%
II	50	14%
III	52	14%
IV	14	4%
V	29	8%
VI	41	11%

All 364 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 Northern District of California against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	43	12%
Above the range	6	2%
Below the range, government-sponsored	225	62%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	90	25%

All 364 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 Northern District of California, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	786	288	498	36.6%	63.4%
FY2007	766	336	430	43.9%	56.1%
FY2008	850	468	382	55.1%	44.9%
FY2009	1,263	820	443	64.9%	35.1%
FY2010	1,013	553	460	54.6%	45.4%
FY2011	988	559	429	56.6%	43.4%
FY2012	976	542	434	55.5%	44.5%
FY2013	830	478	352	57.6%	42.4%
FY2014	821	448	373	54.6%	45.4%
FY2015	736	298	438	40.5%	59.5%
FY2016	532	238	294	44.7%	55.3%
FY2017	599	256	343	42.7%	57.3%
FY2018	609	279	330	45.8%	54.2%
FY2019	760	328	432	43.2%	56.8%
FY2020	615	255	360	41.5%	58.5%
FY2021	533	186	347	34.9%	65.1%
FY2022	317	132	185	41.6%	58.4%
FY2023	347	145	202	41.8%	58.2%
FY2024	465	252	213	54.2%	45.8%
FY2025	364	167	197	45.9%	54.1%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	676	178	498	26.3%	73.7%
FY2007	617	188	429	30.5%	69.5%
FY2008	667	285	382	42.7%	57.3%
FY2009	894	456	438	51.0%	49.0%
FY2010	735	277	458	37.7%	62.3%
FY2011	726	298	428	41.0%	59.0%
FY2012	809	376	433	46.5%	53.5%
FY2013	698	346	352	49.6%	50.4%
FY2014	745	372	373	49.9%	50.1%
FY2015	679	242	437	35.6%	64.4%
FY2016	486	198	288	40.7%	59.3%
FY2017	561	223	338	39.8%	60.2%
FY2018	572	254	318	44.4%	55.6%
FY2019	730	309	421	42.3%	57.7%
FY2020	598	247	351	41.3%	58.7%
FY2021	526	182	344	34.6%	65.4%
FY2022	313	130	183	41.5%	58.5%
FY2023	345	143	202	41.4%	58.6%
FY2024	459	251	208	54.7%	45.3%
FY2025	358	162	196	45.3%	54.7%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	286	106	180	37.1%	62.9%
FY2023	279	100	179	35.8%	64.2%
FY2024	305	128	177	42.0%	58.0%
FY2025	325	131	194	40.3%	59.7%

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