Northern District of Iowa

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 313
Noncitizens, FY2025: 11%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 324
Detained, FY2025: 68.2%

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	98%306	306
Prison and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation and alternatives	<1%1	1
Probation only	1%3	3

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 72 months (mean 101) for the 309 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	39%121	121
Firearms	28%89	89
Immigration	8%24	24
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	7%23	23
Child Pornography	6%20	20
Money Launder	3%8	8
Sex Abuse	3%8	8
Prison Offenses	2%5	5
Assault	1%4	4
Other	1%3	3
Robbery	1%3	3
Administration of Justice	1%2	2
Individual Rights	<1%1	1
Kidnapping	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1

All 313 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	117	153	99	112	117	129	101	121
Firearms	82	116	131	110	132	115	103	89
Immigration	103	57	42	18	18	21	25	24
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	28	29	29	21	16	14	29	23
Child Pornography	6	4	13	14	10	12	8	20
Prison Offenses	2	6	8	10	9	12	10	5
Sex Abuse	8	4	9	7	8	7	6	8
Robbery	4	7	4	5	3	4	2	3
Assault	4	3	7	1	4	4	2	4
Money Launder	2	9	1	3	3	0	2	8
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	3	6	3	5	3	3	0	1
Other	0	3	1	2	3	6	4	3
Drug Possession	0	9	3	1	1	0	0	0
Administration of Justice	2	2	5	1	0	1	0	2
Stalking/Harassing	2	1	4	2	0	1	0	0
Tax	1	2	1	2	1	1	0	0
Kidnapping	0	0	0	2	1	0	2	1
Murder	0	1	1	2	1	1	0	0
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	0	2	0	3	0	0
Environmental	0	1	0	3	1	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	0	2	0	0	3	0	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	2	1	0	1	1	0	0	0
Individual Rights	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	1
Arson	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	370	415	365	326	333	338	295	313

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	89%278	278
Not a U.S. citizen	11%35	35
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

24 of the 313 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
White+MENA	42%130	130
Black	35%108	108
Hispanic	20%61	61
AIAN	3%8	8
Asian+NHPI	1%4	4
Race unknown	1%2	2

All 313 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	31%97	97
II	14%45	45
III	17%53	53
IV	8%25	25
V	10%30	30
VI	20%62	62
Category not known	<1%1	1

All 313 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%153	153
Above the range	8%26	26
Below the range, government-sponsored	22%70	70
Below the range, not government-sponsored	20%64	64

All 313 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	324	221	103	68.2%	31.8%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	301	198	103	65.8%	34.2%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	289	186	103	64.4%	35.6%

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 Iowa, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	358	258	92	8	51
FY2003	423	325	92	6	57
FY2004	498	349	147	2	96
FY2005	386	264	121	1	76
FY2006	421	289	128	4	95
FY2007	455	323	130	2	78
FY2008	590	240	349	1	292
FY2009	349	271	77	1	31
FY2010	344	268	76	0	60
FY2011	520	293	227	0	172
FY2012	390	234	156	0	123
FY2013	373	271	102	0	76
FY2014	368	262	106	0	84
FY2015	361	257	104	0	81
FY2016	348	262	86	0	63
FY2017	376	250	124	2	75
FY2018	370	255	115	0	103
FY2019	415	333	82	0	57
FY2020	365	303	62	0	42
FY2021	326	297	29	0	18
FY2022	333	305	28	0	18
FY2023	338	305	33	0	21
FY2024	295	265	30	0	25
FY2025	313	278	35	0	24

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 Iowa, 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	358	318	9	15	11	5	0	91%	1
FY2003*	423	398	8	10	4	3	0	96%	4
FY2004	498	472	8	5	12	0	1	97%	1
FY2005*	386	352	12	4	16	2	0	94%	3
FY2006	421	384	13	7	15	2	0	94%	4
FY2007	455	430	7	6	12	0	0	96%	5
FY2008*	590	567	4	6	13	0	0	97%	7
FY2009	349	327	9	5	7	1	0	96%	4
FY2010*	344	321	12	3	8	0	0	97%	1
FY2011	520	494	13	4	9	0	0	98%	0
FY2012	390	367	13	4	6	0	0	97%	3
FY2013	373	359	4	0	10	0	0	97%	1
FY2014	368	356	3	1	8	0	0	98%	3
FY2015	361	344	4	3	10	0	0	96%	2
FY2016	348	331	3	4	10	0	0	96%	1
FY2017	376	360	2	2	12	0	0	96%	1
FY2018	370	362	2	0	6	0	0	98%	1
FY2019*	415	402	4	2	7	0	0	98%	1
FY2020	365	345	9	3	8	0	0	97%	0
FY2021	326	311	3	3	9	0	0	96%	0
FY2022	333	317	4	1	11	0	0	96%	1
FY2023	338	326	1	0	11	0	0	97%	0
FY2024*	295	285	2	4	4	0	0	97%	1
FY2025	313	306	3	1	3	0	0	99%	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 Iowa, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	76	58	358	82	60	327
FY2003*	98	70	423	101	74	406
FY2004	87	63	497	89	66	480
FY2005*	78	51	386	83	60	364
FY2006	84	51	419	89	60	395
FY2007	99	63	455	103	68	437
FY2008*	57	5	590	59	6	571
FY2009	105	72	349	109	78	336
FY2010*	87	60	344	91	62	330
FY2011	69	39	520	71	42	506
FY2012	73	46	390	76	46	371
FY2013	84	66	373	87	70	360
FY2014	85	60	368	87	60	359
FY2015	82	57	361	86	60	344
FY2016	70	43	348	74	57	328
FY2017	71	46	376	75	48	357
FY2018	74	40	370	75	41	364
FY2019*	79	48	415	81	54	406
FY2020	66	41	365	68	45	354
FY2021	87	61	326	90	67	314
FY2022	86	60	333	90	63	321
FY2023	89	63	338	92	64	327
FY2024*	92	60	295	95	60	287
FY2025	99	70	313	101	72	309

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 Iowa by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	203	280	286	190	179	213	149	175
Immigration	51	57	96	76	95	78	292	31
Firearms	43	38	55	49	62	82	67	59
Fraud	18	17	21	24	26	20	45	18
Pornography/Prostitution	2	7	11	13	11	18	12	20
Administration of Justice	3	7	6	8	6	11	4	3
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	4	2	8	9	5	6	3	6
Money Laundering	1	3	1	3	5	8	4	5
Robbery	7	2	1	0	6	2	1	2
Sexual Abuse	0	0	1	0	2	3	4	11
Larceny	3	1	3	2	3	0	1	6
Forgery/Counterfeiting	5	0	4	1	4	3	0	0
Assault	0	1	1	1	4	2	1	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	5	0	2	1	1	1	1
Tax Offenses	2	1	2	2	0	1	1	3
Embezzlement	4	0	0	2	0	0	0	2
Food and Drug Offenses	3	0	0	3	1	0	0	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	2	1	1	0	1	2	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	6	1	0	0
Prison Offenses	1	0	0	0	0	3	1	1
Auto Theft	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Racketeering/Extortion	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Arson	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Offense type not known	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	358	423	498	386	421	455	590	349

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 Iowa by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	164	185	166	166	144	136	130	156
Immigration	60	172	123	76	84	81	63	75
Firearms	50	74	42	64	66	72	86	57
Fraud	23	31	25	21	14	21	27	35
Child Pornography	15	26	16	17	18	9	11	11
Administration of Justice	17	9	6	10	13	13	9	7
Prison Offenses	1	4	1	4	5	1	6	9
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	1	2	3	1	4	5	2	6
Larceny	5	1	0	0	4	2	2	5
Robbery	0	0	2	3	4	3	3	4
Money Laundering	4	2	1	1	0	2	0	5
Sexual Abuse	1	1	0	3	5	1	0	1
Tax Offenses	0	3	1	2	2	1	1	2
Embezzlement	0	0	1	1	1	2	2	2
Assault	0	1	0	1	2	1	1	0
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	1	1	1	0	1	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	2	0	0	2	1	0
Antitrust Violations	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Forgery/Counterfeiting	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Arson	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	344	520	390	373	368	361	348	376

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 Iowa by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	121	39%
Firearms	89	28%
Immigration	24	8%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	23	7%
Child Pornography	20	6%
Money Launder	8	3%
Sex Abuse	8	3%
Prison Offenses	5	2%
Assault	4	1%
Other	3	1%
Robbery	3	1%
Administration of Justice	2	1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%
Kidnapping	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%

All 313 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 Iowa by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
White+MENA	130	42%
Black	108	35%
Hispanic	61	20%
AIAN	8	3%
Asian+NHPI	4	1%
Race unknown	2	1%

All 313 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 Iowa by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	97	31%
II	45	14%
III	53	17%
IV	25	8%
V	30	10%
VI	62	20%
Category not known	1	<1%

All 313 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 Iowa against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	153	49%
Above the range	26	8%
Below the range, government-sponsored	70	22%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	64	20%

All 313 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 Iowa, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	508	318	190	62.6%	37.4%
FY2007	372	229	143	61.6%	38.4%
FY2008	638	504	134	79.0%	21.0%
FY2009	378	173	205	45.8%	54.2%
FY2010	377	245	132	65.0%	35.0%
FY2011	489	306	183	62.6%	37.4%
FY2012	369	237	132	64.2%	35.8%
FY2013	306	202	104	66.0%	34.0%
FY2014	376	263	113	69.9%	30.1%
FY2015	361	241	120	66.8%	33.2%
FY2016	328	237	91	72.3%	27.7%
FY2017	393	303	90	77.1%	22.9%
FY2018	365	267	98	73.2%	26.8%
FY2019	377	256	121	67.9%	32.1%
FY2020	308	196	112	63.6%	36.4%
FY2021	322	196	126	60.9%	39.1%
FY2022	289	193	96	66.8%	33.2%
FY2023	270	179	91	66.3%	33.7%
FY2024	304	207	97	68.1%	31.9%
FY2025	324	221	103	68.2%	31.8%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	427	237	190	55.5%	44.5%
FY2007	323	180	143	55.7%	44.3%
FY2008	605	472	133	78.0%	22.0%
FY2009	366	161	205	44.0%	56.0%
FY2010	295	163	132	55.3%	44.7%
FY2011	367	185	182	50.4%	49.6%
FY2012	286	154	132	53.8%	46.2%
FY2013	236	133	103	56.4%	43.6%
FY2014	301	190	111	63.1%	36.9%
FY2015	322	203	119	63.0%	37.0%
FY2016	276	185	91	67.0%	33.0%
FY2017	339	249	90	73.5%	26.5%
FY2018	319	221	98	69.3%	30.7%
FY2019	328	207	121	63.1%	36.9%
FY2020	283	171	112	60.4%	39.6%
FY2021	310	185	125	59.7%	40.3%
FY2022	278	182	96	65.5%	34.5%
FY2023	247	160	87	64.8%	35.2%
FY2024	280	183	97	65.4%	34.6%
FY2025	301	198	103	65.8%	34.2%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	262	169	93	64.5%	35.5%
FY2023	240	155	85	64.6%	35.4%
FY2024	275	178	97	64.7%	35.3%
FY2025	289	186	103	64.4%	35.6%

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