Southern District of Alabama

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 299
Noncitizens, FY2025: 20%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 221
Detained, FY2025: 63.3%

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	94%282	282
Prison and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation and alternatives	1%4	4
Probation only	3%10	10

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 37 months (mean 67) for the 285 sentenced to prison, 3 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
Firearms	29%87	87
Drug Trafficking	26%78	78
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	17%52	52
Immigration	14%41	41
Murder	3%9	9
Assault	1%4	4
Child Pornography	1%4	4
Robbery	1%4	4
Sex Abuse	1%4	4
Stalking/Harassing	1%3	3
Tax	1%3	3
Kidnapping	1%2	2
Administration of Justice	<1%1	1
Arson	<1%1	1
Burglary/Trespass	<1%1	1
Commercialized Vice	<1%1	1
Environmental	<1%1	1
Money Launder	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1
Other	<1%1	1

All 299 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the Southern District of Alabama by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	92	116	126	118	146	78	87	78
Firearms	110	130	94	50	88	96	60	87
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	22	21	16	19	24	83	49	52
Immigration	25	56	32	5	14	9	11	41
Robbery	11	13	12	14	5	6	7	4
Money Launder	4	1	2	1	2	9	6	1
Sex Abuse	2	5	4	2	2	2	3	4
Assault	2	5	1	2	4	3	2	4
Child Pornography	3	4	1	3	2	3	3	4
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	4	4	3	1	1	2	0	1
Stalking/Harassing	2	2	2	0	1	0	5	3
Administration of Justice	0	1	2	2	8	0	0	1
Prison Offenses	1	0	0	5	2	2	3	0
Murder	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	9
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	3	3	2	0	2	1	0	0
Tax	0	4	1	1	0	2	0	3
Arson	0	0	0	0	1	8	0	1
Other	4	1	1	1	0	0	1	1
Extortion/Racketeering	0	7	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	2
Individual Rights	0	0	0	1	1	3	0	0
Bribery/Corruption	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	0
Environmental	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	1
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Drug Possession	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	287	376	301	228	308	308	237	299

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	80%240	240
Not a U.S. citizen	20%59	59
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

41 of the 299 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black	55%164	164
White+MENA	22%67	67
Hispanic	21%63	63
Asian+NHPI	1%4	4
AIAN	<1%1	1

All 299 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	41%123	123
II	17%50	50
III	17%50	50
IV	11%33	33
V	4%12	12
VI	10%31	31

All 299 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	58%174	174
Above the range	2%7	7
Below the range, government-sponsored	21%63	63
Below the range, not government-sponsored	18%55	55

All 299 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	221	140	81	63.3%	36.7%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	176	96	80	54.5%	45.5%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	169	88	81	52.1%	47.9%

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 Southern District of Alabama, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	311	290	19	2	7
FY2003	322	316	5	1	0
FY2004	295	278	17	0	6
FY2005	329	290	38	1	21
FY2006	394	359	24	11	19
FY2007	356	306	46	4	24
FY2008	556	487	66	3	31
FY2009	430	390	35	5	22
FY2010	307	280	26	1	8
FY2011	439	387	52	0	25
FY2012	452	412	39	1	17
FY2013	351	309	40	2	21
FY2014	397	372	25	0	12
FY2015	329	298	31	0	19
FY2016	317	288	29	0	12
FY2017	333	298	35	0	14
FY2018	287	251	36	0	25
FY2019	376	305	71	0	56
FY2020	301	249	52	0	32
FY2021	228	215	13	0	5
FY2022	308	277	31	0	14
FY2023	308	272	36	0	9
FY2024	237	203	34	0	11
FY2025	299	240	59	0	41

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 Southern District of Alabama, 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	311	242	16	11	42	0	0	83%	0
FY2003*	322	262	8	20	31	1	0	84%	1
FY2004	295	256	8	10	21	0	0	89%	1
FY2005*	329	277	7	13	31	0	1	87%	0
FY2006	394	327	5	15	47	0	0	84%	5
FY2007	356	301	7	17	31	0	0	87%	4
FY2008*	556	467	10	22	57	0	0	86%	3
FY2009	430	377	12	10	31	0	0	90%	1
FY2010*	307	254	13	19	20	1	0	87%	4
FY2011	439	363	15	31	30	0	0	86%	2
FY2012	452	343	12	42	55	0	0	79%	2
FY2013	351	257	10	27	57	0	0	76%	0
FY2014	397	300	15	26	56	0	0	79%	0
FY2015	329	262	4	15	47	1	0	81%	0
FY2016	317	258	6	9	44	0	0	83%	0
FY2017	333	283	15	3	31	1	0	89%	0
FY2018	287	257	10	7	13	0	0	93%	1
FY2019*	376	334	8	4	30	0	0	91%	0
FY2020	301	273	7	3	18	0	0	93%	0
FY2021	228	205	15	1	7	0	0	96%	0
FY2022	308	284	5	2	17	0	0	94%	1
FY2023	308	268	19	0	21	0	0	93%	0
FY2024*	237	224	2	2	9	0	0	95%	0
FY2025	299	282	3	4	10	0	0	95%	3

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 Southern District of Alabama, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	51	33	311	61	44	258
FY2003*	59	31	322	69	41	270
FY2004	63	41	295	70	48	264
FY2005*	54	30	328	62	37	283
FY2006	61	37	394	75	46	320
FY2007	76	42	356	88	60	304
FY2008*	59	36	556	69	46	474
FY2009	65	46	430	72	51	385
FY2010*	60	30	307	69	41	264
FY2011	54	30	439	63	37	371
FY2012	44	24	452	55	36	350
FY2013	40	18	351	54	36	257
FY2014	44	30	397	56	41	309
FY2015	43	24	329	53	33	262
FY2016	45	30	317	58	41	246
FY2017	50	33	333	57	41	289
FY2018	48	33	287	51	36	267
FY2019*	52	30	376	57	36	342
FY2020	64	46	301	68	47	280
FY2021	71	60	228	73	60	220
FY2022	64	37	308	68	46	289
FY2023	54	36	308	57	37	287
FY2024*	67	48	237	70	51	226
FY2025	64	37	299	67	37	285

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 Southern District of Alabama by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	144	116	125	131	183	147	261	193
Firearms	34	66	80	81	70	71	103	101
Fraud	28	41	17	33	30	53	64	41
Immigration	7	0	6	21	19	24	31	22
Robbery	26	23	8	10	12	11	14	16
Forgery/Counterfeiting	7	21	9	9	19	3	9	11
Administration of Justice	13	12	13	9	14	11	7	2
Larceny	7	7	8	11	13	10	16	6
Pornography/Prostitution	3	5	4	7	12	10	11	15
Racketeering/Extortion	16	11	7	3	0	1	2	0
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	2	4	3	1	3	3	11	6
Embezzlement	7	5	4	2	1	1	5	3
Money Laundering	7	2	2	2	9	3	2	1
Sexual Abuse	0	0	1	1	0	0	6	7
Assault	2	1	1	2	1	2	1	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	0	1	1	3	3	1	1
Tax Offenses	4	1	3	1	0	1	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	1	2	0	1	0	3	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	1	1	1	0	1	4	0
Prison Offenses	0	0	0	2	3	0	3	0
Auto Theft	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1
Civil Rights Offenses	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Food and Drug Offenses	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Arson	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Bribery	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Offense type not known	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	311	322	295	329	394	356	556	430

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 Southern District of Alabama by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	118	156	157	100	101	69	87	138
Firearms	54	87	110	76	107	110	108	110
Fraud	41	61	106	92	80	65	36	20
Immigration	8	25	17	21	12	19	12	14
Administration of Justice	7	16	12	20	15	15	26	9
Larceny	13	15	11	13	12	7	5	3
Forgery/Counterfeiting	21	18	5	2	9	2	10	3
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	12	15	4	3	5	12	7	4
Robbery	7	8	11	5	9	5	6	6
Child Pornography	7	11	5	4	6	7	4	7
Money Laundering	5	6	2	1	3	5	4	1
Racketeering/Extortion	0	4	1	4	11	1	0	0
Sexual Abuse	3	1	2	2	5	1	3	3
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	6	0	1	8	3	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	4	3	0	5	2	1	0
Tax Offenses	0	1	1	1	3	1	4	1
Embezzlement	2	0	0	0	0	1	1	7
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	0	2	3	0	1	0	2
National Defense Offenses	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	0
Arson	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
Assault	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	1
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	1	1	0	2	0	0	0
Prison Offenses	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	2
Bribery	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	307	439	452	351	397	329	317	333

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 Southern District of Alabama by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Firearms	87	29%
Drug Trafficking	78	26%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	52	17%
Immigration	41	14%
Murder	9	3%
Assault	4	1%
Child Pornography	4	1%
Robbery	4	1%
Sex Abuse	4	1%
Stalking/Harassing	3	1%
Tax	3	1%
Kidnapping	2	1%
Administration of Justice	1	<1%
Arson	1	<1%
Burglary/Trespass	1	<1%
Commercialized Vice	1	<1%
Environmental	1	<1%
Money Launder	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%
Other	1	<1%

All 299 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 Southern District of Alabama by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
Black	164	55%
White+MENA	67	22%
Hispanic	63	21%
Asian+NHPI	4	1%
AIAN	1	<1%

All 299 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 Southern District of Alabama by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	123	41%
II	50	17%
III	50	17%
IV	33	11%
V	12	4%
VI	31	10%

All 299 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 Southern District of Alabama against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	174	58%
Above the range	7	2%
Below the range, government-sponsored	63	21%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	55	18%

All 299 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 Southern District of Alabama, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	370	207	163	55.9%	44.1%
FY2007	406	219	187	53.9%	46.1%
FY2008	404	193	211	47.8%	52.2%
FY2009	290	128	162	44.1%	55.9%
FY2010	323	154	169	47.7%	52.3%
FY2011	357	137	220	38.4%	61.6%
FY2012	311	96	215	30.9%	69.1%
FY2013	316	130	186	41.1%	58.9%
FY2014	286	99	187	34.6%	65.4%
FY2015	227	87	140	38.3%	61.7%
FY2016	209	91	118	43.5%	56.5%
FY2017	200	91	109	45.5%	54.5%
FY2018	214	100	114	46.7%	53.3%
FY2019	279	144	135	51.6%	48.4%
FY2020	145	47	98	32.4%	67.6%
FY2021	209	103	106	49.3%	50.7%
FY2022	201	91	110	45.3%	54.7%
FY2023	219	105	114	47.9%	52.1%
FY2024	195	97	98	49.7%	50.3%
FY2025	221	140	81	63.3%	36.7%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	354	194	160	54.8%	45.2%
FY2007	365	179	186	49.0%	51.0%
FY2008	386	177	209	45.9%	54.1%
FY2009	280	119	161	42.5%	57.5%
FY2010	316	147	169	46.5%	53.5%
FY2011	340	121	219	35.6%	64.4%
FY2012	300	92	208	30.7%	69.3%
FY2013	307	127	180	41.4%	58.6%
FY2014	276	91	185	33.0%	67.0%
FY2015	210	71	139	33.8%	66.2%
FY2016	203	87	116	42.9%	57.1%
FY2017	187	79	108	42.2%	57.8%
FY2018	189	75	114	39.7%	60.3%
FY2019	239	104	135	43.5%	56.5%
FY2020	135	37	98	27.4%	72.6%
FY2021	203	97	106	47.8%	52.2%
FY2022	193	83	110	43.0%	57.0%
FY2023	215	101	114	47.0%	53.0%
FY2024	185	87	98	47.0%	53.0%
FY2025	176	96	80	54.5%	45.5%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	176	66	110	37.5%	62.5%
FY2023	198	84	114	42.4%	57.6%
FY2024	179	82	97	45.8%	54.2%
FY2025	169	88	81	52.1%	47.9%

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