Southern 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: 343
Noncitizens, FY2025: 10%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 311
Detained, FY2025: 76.5%

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	95%327	327
Prison and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation only	3%10	10

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 108 months (mean 129) for the 330 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	38%131	131
Firearms	22%77	77
Child Pornography	8%28	28
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	7%24	24
Assault	7%23	23
Immigration	5%16	16
Sex Abuse	4%15	15
Money Launder	2%5	5
Robbery	2%5	5
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1%4	4
Other	1%4	4
Prison Offenses	1%4	4
Stalking/Harassing	1%2	2
Administration of Justice	<1%1	1
Extortion/Racketeering	<1%1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%1	1
Murder	<1%1	1
Tax	<1%1	1

All 343 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	231	248	197	238	192	208	157	131
Firearms	97	91	102	131	121	100	74	77
Child Pornography	15	24	24	37	32	24	23	28
Immigration	59	44	37	11	10	11	8	16
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	21	23	14	23	24	22	10	24
Sex Abuse	13	20	8	16	21	20	27	15
Assault	0	0	3	7	20	9	4	23
Prison Offenses	6	0	4	5	8	17	7	4
Robbery	12	8	8	2	4	2	1	5
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	7	7	5	7	1	7	3	4
Money Launder	2	7	2	4	2	2	1	5
Administration of Justice	3	2	4	0	4	2	4	1
Other	0	6	2	2	2	1	0	4
Tax	2	0	3	1	3	3	4	1
Stalking/Harassing	3	4	0	3	0	1	3	2
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	4	2	3	1	0	3	0	1
Individual Rights	1	0	1	0	2	2	1	0
Arson	0	0	1	1	1	2	0	0
Environmental	0	2	1	1	0	1	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	1
Drug Possession	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0
Food and Drug	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0
Commercialized Vice	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
Kidnapping	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Manslaughter	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	477	493	421	495	454	440	328	343

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	90%308	308
Not a U.S. citizen	10%35	35
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

16 of the 343 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
White+MENA, 1 placed by CrimeDB	45%153	153
Black	39%135	135
Hispanic	15%52	52
Asian+NHPI	1%2	2
AIAN	<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 343 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 1 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	32%111	111
II	13%43	43
III	15%50	50
IV	9%31	31
V	9%30	30
VI	23%78	78

All 343 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	39%134	134
Above the range	4%12	12
Below the range, government-sponsored	15%52	52
Below the range, not government-sponsored	42%145	145

All 343 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	311	238	73	76.5%	23.5%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	296	223	73	75.3%	24.7%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	297	224	73	75.4%	24.6%

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 Southern District of Iowa, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	291	194	92	5	59
FY2003	405	294	109	2	56
FY2004	348	229	117	2	66
FY2005	371	227	138	6	87
FY2006	366	260	101	5	59
FY2007	373	261	108	4	60
FY2008	472	346	119	7	69
FY2009	469	380	86	3	28
FY2010	456	344	103	9	50
FY2011	407	321	76	10	41
FY2012	426	341	85	0	42
FY2013	414	341	72	1	41
FY2014	300	234	66	0	31
FY2015	309	244	65	0	30
FY2016	353	259	94	0	39
FY2017	404	310	93	1	58
FY2018	477	384	92	1	59
FY2019	493	419	74	0	44
FY2020	421	362	59	0	37
FY2021	495	460	35	0	11
FY2022	454	433	21	0	10
FY2023	440	398	42	0	11
FY2024	328	297	31	0	8
FY2025	343	308	35	0	16

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 Iowa, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	Prison only	Prison and alternatives	Probation and alternatives	Probation only	Fine only	Sentenced to prison	Life sentences
FY2002	291	258	6	10	16	1	91%	2
FY2003*	405	354	12	22	16	1	90%	3
FY2004	348	323	4	8	13	0	94%	0
FY2005*	371	343	5	11	12	0	94%	3
FY2006	366	332	11	10	13	0	94%	5
FY2007	373	343	11	4	14	1	95%	3
FY2008*	472	424	6	15	26	1	91%	2
FY2009	469	420	19	7	23	0	94%	18
FY2010*	456	409	11	13	23	0	92%	9
FY2011	407	347	12	14	34	0	88%	1
FY2012	426	389	10	11	16	0	94%	1
FY2013	414	365	21	9	19	0	93%	0
FY2014	300	250	24	6	19	1	91%	0
FY2015	309	268	14	8	19	0	91%	0
FY2016	353	298	21	15	19	0	90%	2
FY2017	404	370	13	9	12	0	95%	1
FY2018	477	435	22	5	14	1	96%	1
FY2019*	493	447	24	6	16	0	96%	0
FY2020	421	399	8	0	14	0	97%	1
FY2021	495	468	6	3	18	0	96%	0
FY2022	454	427	10	2	15	0	96%	1
FY2023	440	412	6	1	21	0	95%	1
FY2024*	328	315	4	0	9	0	97%	0
FY2025	343	327	3	3	10	0	96%	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 Southern 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	89	64	291	98	72	263
FY2003*	88	59	404	98	70	364
FY2004	83	57	348	89	59	326
FY2005*	69	41	371	75	50	341
FY2006	84	60	366	91	67	336
FY2007	95	60	373	101	63	347
FY2008*	87	60	472	96	70	425
FY2009	109	71	469	119	84	429
FY2010*	90	60	456	101	70	407
FY2011	72	46	407	82	60	354
FY2012	81	60	426	87	70	393
FY2013	73	51	414	80	60	377
FY2014	71	60	300	79	60	268
FY2015	74	60	309	83	63	276
FY2016	70	46	353	79	60	309
FY2017	75	56	404	80	60	376
FY2018	83	60	477	87	65	457
FY2019*	96	72	493	101	78	471
FY2020	88	71	421	91	72	407
FY2021	105	84	495	109	90	474
FY2022	112	86	454	117	96	437
FY2023	115	90	440	121	96	418
FY2024*	130	120	328	133	120	319
FY2025	124	100	343	129	108	330

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 Iowa by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	160	211	178	183	179	163	202	219
Immigration	59	56	66	87	59	60	69	28
Firearms	15	41	49	55	53	62	102	106
Fraud	10	29	19	21	28	34	27	28
Pornography/Prostitution	3	8	7	4	12	20	16	34
Larceny	8	14	3	7	6	4	7	8
Forgery/Counterfeiting	9	14	3	1	6	7	5	5
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	4	6	5	5	3	2	10	6
Robbery	9	5	8	1	4	3	7	3
Prison Offenses	3	3	1	3	3	1	10	1
Administration of Justice	3	1	3	1	3	1	4	6
Embezzlement	2	5	1	1	4	1	3	1
Auto Theft	1	4	0	0	1	0	0	8
Sexual Abuse	0	1	0	0	1	2	3	4
Assault	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	6
Money Laundering	0	4	0	0	0	2	1	3
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	3	2	0	1	0	2	0
Tax Offenses	2	0	1	2	0	2	1	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0
Arson	0	0	0	0	0	4	1	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1
Gambling/Lottery	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
All offenses	291	405	348	371	366	373	472	469

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 Iowa by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	230	160	201	143	116	110	144	160
Firearms	64	57	68	83	56	53	66	72
Immigration	50	41	42	41	31	30	39	58
Child Pornography	24	27	41	37	29	45	34	37
Fraud	34	55	26	41	27	22	28	23
Administration of Justice	10	12	13	15	15	6	6	11
Prison Offenses	3	7	8	7	4	12	8	8
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	10	14	6	9	6	5	3	4
Robbery	4	4	2	6	4	6	4	9
Sexual Abuse	3	7	6	4	5	2	3	8
Larceny	7	2	5	10	1	2	1	3
Embezzlement	5	2	0	0	0	4	2	4
Assault	1	4	2	5	1	1	1	1
Tax Offenses	2	6	0	0	1	2	5	0
Forgery/Counterfeiting	3	3	3	3	0	2	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	0	0	2	2	2	4	0
Money Laundering	2	3	2	1	1	0	0	0
Arson	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	2
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	2
Bribery	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	456	407	426	414	300	309	353	404

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 Iowa by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	131	38%
Firearms	77	22%
Child Pornography	28	8%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	24	7%
Assault	23	7%
Immigration	16	5%
Sex Abuse	15	4%
Money Launder	5	2%
Robbery	5	2%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	4	1%
Other	4	1%
Prison Offenses	4	1%
Stalking/Harassing	2	1%
Administration of Justice	1	<1%
Extortion/Racketeering	1	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	<1%
Murder	1	<1%
Tax	1	<1%

All 343 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 Iowa by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
White+MENA	153	1	45%
Black	135	0	39%
Hispanic	52	0	15%
Asian+NHPI	2	0	1%
AIAN	1	0	<1%

All 343 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 1 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 Southern District of Iowa by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	111	32%
II	43	13%
III	50	15%
IV	31	9%
V	30	9%
VI	78	23%

All 343 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 Iowa against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	134	39%
Above the range	12	4%
Below the range, government-sponsored	52	15%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	145	42%

All 343 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 Iowa, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	394	241	153	61.2%	38.8%
FY2007	501	327	174	65.3%	34.7%
FY2008	407	247	160	60.7%	39.3%
FY2009	450	243	207	54.0%	46.0%
FY2010	366	203	163	55.5%	44.5%
FY2011	384	222	162	57.8%	42.2%
FY2012	436	275	161	63.1%	36.9%
FY2013	316	184	132	58.2%	41.8%
FY2014	275	169	106	61.5%	38.5%
FY2015	339	202	137	59.6%	40.4%
FY2016	379	244	135	64.4%	35.6%
FY2017	456	310	146	68.0%	32.0%
FY2018	480	326	154	67.9%	32.1%
FY2019	505	335	170	66.3%	33.7%
FY2020	452	312	140	69.0%	31.0%
FY2021	396	279	117	70.5%	29.5%
FY2022	389	271	118	69.7%	30.3%
FY2023	344	252	92	73.3%	26.7%
FY2024	281	220	61	78.3%	21.7%
FY2025	311	238	73	76.5%	23.5%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	356	204	152	57.3%	42.7%
FY2007	462	288	174	62.3%	37.7%
FY2008	375	215	160	57.3%	42.7%
FY2009	424	218	206	51.4%	48.6%
FY2010	330	168	162	50.9%	49.1%
FY2011	363	201	162	55.4%	44.6%
FY2012	388	227	161	58.5%	41.5%
FY2013	285	153	132	53.7%	46.3%
FY2014	249	143	106	57.4%	42.6%
FY2015	308	171	137	55.5%	44.5%
FY2016	338	204	134	60.4%	39.6%
FY2017	399	254	145	63.7%	36.3%
FY2018	418	264	154	63.2%	36.8%
FY2019	470	300	170	63.8%	36.2%
FY2020	427	287	140	67.2%	32.8%
FY2021	392	275	117	70.2%	29.8%
FY2022	377	259	118	68.7%	31.3%
FY2023	338	246	92	72.8%	27.2%
FY2024	270	209	61	77.4%	22.6%
FY2025	296	223	73	75.3%	24.7%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	376	259	117	68.9%	31.1%
FY2023	328	239	89	72.9%	27.1%
FY2024	268	208	60	77.6%	22.4%
FY2025	297	224	73	75.4%	24.6%

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