Northern District of Illinois

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 587
Noncitizens, FY2025: 13%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 537
Detained, FY2025: 46.2%

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%537	537
Prison and alternatives	1%4	4
Probation and alternatives	1%7	7
Probation only	7%39	39

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 48 months (mean 73) for the 541 sentenced to prison, 1 of them to life; 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	25%144	144
Firearms	22%128	128
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	20%115	115
Robbery	9%55	55
Immigration	4%21	21
Money Launder	4%21	21
Bribery/Corruption	3%19	19
Sex Abuse	2%13	13
Stalking/Harassing	2%11	11
Tax	2%10	10
Kidnapping	1%8	8
Child Pornography	1%7	7
Administration of Justice	1%5	5
Murder	1%5	5
Assault	1%4	4
National Defense	1%4	4
Prison Offenses	1%4	4
Extortion/Racketeering	1%3	3
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1%3	3
Arson	<1%2	2
Drug Possession	<1%2	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%2	2
Food and Drug	<1%1	1

All 587 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	223	140	154	181	171	184	170	144
Firearms	113	122	117	186	179	148	74	128
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	165	145	89	87	95	100	125	115
Robbery	112	69	38	36	43	43	34	55
Immigration	36	74	60	35	18	19	23	21
Money Launder	19	13	6	12	20	25	18	21
Tax	23	16	10	15	10	11	12	10
Bribery/Corruption	4	13	15	9	7	9	17	19
Sex Abuse	6	14	4	5	13	14	10	13
Child Pornography	7	10	10	6	10	14	10	7
Murder	2	2	9	9	8	12	14	5
Assault	0	7	2	10	12	12	6	4
Administration of Justice	5	9	4	4	3	4	9	5
Extortion/Racketeering	5	7	5	2	2	4	6	3
Stalking/Harassing	1	1	0	3	4	1	2	11
Prison Offenses	2	2	1	1	2	4	6	4
Commercialized Vice	0	0	3	9	3	1	0	0
National Defense	4	1	2	2	2	1	0	4
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	8	0	3	0	0	0	0	3
Individual Rights	2	0	2	2	1	2	5	0
Kidnapping	0	1	0	2	0	0	3	8
Arson	1	0	0	0	4	4	2	2
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	2	1	2	0	0	1	2
Drug Possession	0	1	2	0	3	0	0	2
Antitrust	0	0	1	1	0	5	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	0	6	1	0	0
Environmental	0	4	1	0	2	0	0	0
Other	0	1	1	0	1	2	1	0
Food and Drug	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	1
All offenses	740	655	540	619	621	620	549	587

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	87%508	508
Not a U.S. citizen	13%79	79
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

21 of the 587 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black	48%281	281
Hispanic	26%150	150
White+MENA	20%116	116
Asian+NHPI	6%36	36
Race unknown	1%4	4

All 587 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%273	273
II	14%79	79
III	12%69	69
IV	9%51	51
V	8%45	45
VI	12%70	70

All 587 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	29%170	170
Above the range	3%19	19
Below the range, government-sponsored	19%111	111
Below the range, not government-sponsored	49%287	287

All 587 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	537	248	289	46.2%	53.8%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	482	196	286	40.7%	59.3%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	484	199	285	41.1%	58.9%

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 Illinois, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	1,118	806	278	34	94
FY2003	1,267	923	310	34	114
FY2004	1,022	743	249	30	84
FY2005	1,020	777	227	16	84
FY2006	1,105	867	230	8	61
FY2007	850	650	196	4	52
FY2008	928	705	217	6	71
FY2009	919	688	221	10	104
FY2010	882	631	248	3	128
FY2011	928	678	241	9	131
FY2012	845	620	225	0	112
FY2013	870	661	203	6	97
FY2014	872	665	207	0	96
FY2015	725	581	143	1	51
FY2016	640	510	129	1	47
FY2017	640	514	126	0	42
FY2018	740	591	149	0	36
FY2019	655	509	145	1	74
FY2020	540	427	112	1	60
FY2021	619	520	98	1	35
FY2022	621	543	74	4	18
FY2023	620	519	96	5	19
FY2024	549	470	75	4	23
FY2025	587	508	79	0	21

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 Illinois, 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	1,118	825	76	90	117	1	9	81%	2
FY2003*	1,267	1,006	62	85	108	4	2	84%	4
FY2004	1,022	755	42	81	128	6	10	79%	3
FY2005*	1,020	759	35	97	126	0	3	78%	1
FY2006	1,105	879	45	75	100	1	5	84%	7
FY2007	850	686	42	64	49	4	5	86%	2
FY2008*	928	765	21	58	78	1	5	85%	0
FY2009	919	752	31	55	80	1	0	85%	11
FY2010*	882	763	33	37	49	0	0	90%	0
FY2011	928	743	35	63	86	1	0	84%	1
FY2012	845	705	36	48	56	0	0	88%	1
FY2013	870	735	28	49	58	0	0	88%	2
FY2014	872	717	40	50	65	0	0	87%	3
FY2015	725	610	31	31	52	1	0	88%	1
FY2016	640	540	31	19	50	0	0	89%	1
FY2017	640	552	15	22	50	1	0	89%	6
FY2018	740	643	26	22	48	1	0	90%	0
FY2019*	655	579	16	10	50	0	0	91%	2
FY2020	540	476	8	13	43	0	0	90%	0
FY2021	619	544	11	10	54	0	0	90%	1
FY2022	621	553	5	11	50	2	0	90%	0
FY2023	620	555	9	11	45	0	0	91%	1
FY2024*	549	495	3	6	45	0	0	91%	0
FY2025	587	537	4	7	39	0	0	92%	1

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 Illinois, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	51	27	1,108	62	37	899
FY2003*	58	35	1,265	68	46	1,066
FY2004	58	33	1,011	72	48	796
FY2005*	59	33	1,016	74	48	792
FY2006	67	41	1,099	79	55	923
FY2007	65	43	845	74	51	728
FY2008*	70	46	920	81	59	782
FY2009	74	46	919	86	58	781
FY2010*	66	46	882	73	50	793
FY2011	64	41	928	76	52	775
FY2012	67	46	845	76	51	738
FY2013	67	46	870	76	57	758
FY2014	56	36	872	64	46	755
FY2015	54	36	725	60	42	640
FY2016	54	33	640	61	38	568
FY2017	58	36	640	65	38	564
FY2018	52	37	740	57	42	669
FY2019*	52	36	655	57	40	595
FY2020	46	30	540	51	36	484
FY2021	53	36	619	58	42	555
FY2022	59	43	621	66	48	558
FY2023	59	42	620	65	48	564
FY2024*	62	40	549	69	48	498
FY2025	67	43	587	73	48	541

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 Illinois by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	311	435	330	279	398	316	341	293
Fraud	331	328	278	276	250	211	199	188
Immigration	94	114	84	84	61	52	71	104
Firearms	41	81	84	90	84	61	79	64
Robbery	69	52	29	60	57	53	69	74
Larceny	51	51	33	51	34	17	19	30
Racketeering/Extortion	48	21	15	21	27	3	10	16
Embezzlement	32	27	19	19	19	6	15	20
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	26	20	27	21	20	15	12	16
Forgery/Counterfeiting	19	23	23	18	17	14	14	8
Tax Offenses	11	9	17	16	29	20	16	15
Money Laundering	23	17	12	11	23	17	5	12
Pornography/Prostitution	10	21	17	11	18	10	16	10
Drugs - Communication Facilities	7	14	5	13	17	19	13	17
Administration of Justice	10	11	8	10	21	6	20	12
Bribery	10	3	11	18	8	5	10	3
Gambling/Lottery	1	14	4	6	1	8	3	1
Sexual Abuse	5	4	6	2	4	2	1	5
Assault	1	7	5	3	2	1	3	5
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	1	4	4	3	2	7
Arson	2	2	4	0	0	4	3	2
Civil Rights Offenses	6	2	1	0	1	1	4	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	3	3	2	1	3	0	3
Prison Offenses	3	3	0	3	5	0	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	1	5	1	0	0	0	4
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	0	0	0	1	0	1	5
National Defense Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	2
Murder	1	0	0	1	2	1	0	0
Auto Theft	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Offense type not known	1	3	1	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	1,118	1,267	1,022	1,020	1,105	850	928	919

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 Illinois by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	251	258	236	251	236	218	172	139
Fraud	173	204	222	213	260	195	176	174
Immigration	128	131	112	97	96	51	47	42
Firearms	56	65	78	92	71	60	66	88
Robbery	77	50	32	55	51	42	45	42
Larceny	31	39	21	37	26	19	20	19
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	17	37	24	29	22	22	14	17
Tax Offenses	22	19	24	16	23	29	26	21
Drugs - Communication Facilities	46	36	18	7	9	6	3	6
Child Pornography	21	19	17	14	9	9	5	11
Racketeering/Extortion	9	4	14	10	16	23	14	13
Administration of Justice	8	11	7	14	5	7	11	8
Bribery	11	8	15	5	12	5	5	9
Embezzlement	11	7	4	6	11	3	11	15
Forgery/Counterfeiting	4	16	9	6	3	8	6	13
Money Laundering	5	8	3	3	7	4	8	9
Sexual Abuse	2	1	3	3	2	7	3	5
Assault	1	2	1	1	4	5	2	1
National Defense Offenses	2	1	1	3	0	4	2	2
Food and Drug Offenses	2	0	0	3	2	2	1	2
Murder	1	5	1	2	1	0	1	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	5	1	2	1	0	2	0
Arson	3	0	0	0	1	2	0	3
Prison Offenses	0	1	0	1	3	1	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	882	928	845	870	872	725	640	640

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 Illinois by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	144	25%
Firearms	128	22%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	115	20%
Robbery	55	9%
Immigration	21	4%
Money Launder	21	4%
Bribery/Corruption	19	3%
Sex Abuse	13	2%
Stalking/Harassing	11	2%
Tax	10	2%
Kidnapping	8	1%
Child Pornography	7	1%
Administration of Justice	5	1%
Murder	5	1%
Assault	4	1%
National Defense	4	1%
Prison Offenses	4	1%
Extortion/Racketeering	3	1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	3	1%
Arson	2	<1%
Drug Possession	2	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	<1%
Food and Drug	1	<1%

All 587 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 Illinois by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
Black	281	48%
Hispanic	150	26%
White+MENA	116	20%
Asian+NHPI	36	6%
Race unknown	4	1%

All 587 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 Northern District of Illinois by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	273	47%
II	79	14%
III	69	12%
IV	51	9%
V	45	8%
VI	70	12%

All 587 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 Illinois against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	170	29%
Above the range	19	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	111	19%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	287	49%

All 587 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 Illinois, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	992	431	561	43.4%	56.6%
FY2007	929	438	491	47.1%	52.9%
FY2008	989	406	583	41.1%	58.9%
FY2009	998	467	531	46.8%	53.2%
FY2010	972	497	475	51.1%	48.9%
FY2011	915	413	502	45.1%	54.9%
FY2012	958	448	510	46.8%	53.2%
FY2013	868	418	450	48.2%	51.8%
FY2014	740	303	437	40.9%	59.1%
FY2015	691	252	439	36.5%	63.5%
FY2016	654	296	358	45.3%	54.7%
FY2017	742	364	378	49.1%	50.9%
FY2018	756	398	358	52.6%	47.4%
FY2019	926	490	436	52.9%	47.1%
FY2020	775	331	444	42.7%	57.3%
FY2021	721	323	398	44.8%	55.2%
FY2022	501	229	272	45.7%	54.3%
FY2023	555	246	309	44.3%	55.7%
FY2024	342	165	177	48.2%	51.8%
FY2025	537	248	289	46.2%	53.8%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	962	401	561	41.7%	58.3%
FY2007	879	389	490	44.3%	55.7%
FY2008	933	351	582	37.6%	62.4%
FY2009	869	340	529	39.1%	60.9%
FY2010	841	371	470	44.1%	55.9%
FY2011	824	324	500	39.3%	60.7%
FY2012	879	369	510	42.0%	58.0%
FY2013	774	324	450	41.9%	58.1%
FY2014	694	257	437	37.0%	63.0%
FY2015	650	211	439	32.5%	67.5%
FY2016	623	266	357	42.7%	57.3%
FY2017	706	328	378	46.5%	53.5%
FY2018	701	343	358	48.9%	51.1%
FY2019	834	398	436	47.7%	52.3%
FY2020	740	296	444	40.0%	60.0%
FY2021	687	293	394	42.6%	57.4%
FY2022	484	214	270	44.2%	55.8%
FY2023	541	233	308	43.1%	56.9%
FY2024	327	151	176	46.2%	53.8%
FY2025	482	196	286	40.7%	59.3%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	449	186	263	41.4%	58.6%
FY2023	511	210	301	41.1%	58.9%
FY2024	303	138	165	45.5%	54.5%
FY2025	484	199	285	41.1%	58.9%

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