Western District of Kentucky

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 388
Noncitizens, FY2025: 19%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 352
Detained, FY2025: 67.6%

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	92%356	356
Prison and alternatives	1%5	5
Probation and alternatives	2%6	6
Probation only	5%18	18
Fine only	1%3	3

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 60 months (mean 82) for the 361 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	44%170	170
Firearms	18%68	68
Immigration	13%50	50
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	8%30	30
Administration of Justice	3%13	13
Sex Abuse	3%10	10
Money Launder	2%9	9
Child Pornography	2%8	8
Robbery	1%5	5
Murder	1%4	4
Stalking/Harassing	1%4	4
Commercialized Vice	1%2	2
Drug Possession	1%2	2
Extortion/Racketeering	1%2	2
Individual Rights	1%2	2
Kidnapping	1%2	2
Other	1%2	2
Food and Drug	<1%1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%1	1
National Defense	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1
Tax	<1%1	1

All 388 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the Western District of Kentucky by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	77	90	121	93	99	137	154	170
Firearms	47	85	89	76	55	67	70	68
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	74	56	36	21	19	41	24	30
Immigration	19	35	21	10	16	18	22	50
Sex Abuse	10	9	15	11	16	8	15	10
Child Pornography	8	13	9	6	15	8	6	8
Money Launder	12	4	5	7	15	5	9	9
Administration of Justice	4	5	15	3	5	7	12	13
Other	14	14	7	9	7	1	10	2
Robbery	2	4	9	12	2	11	15	5
Drug Possession	20	20	3	4	2	3	1	2
Assault	3	8	3	3	0	3	4	0
Murder	0	3	0	2	2	4	2	4
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	0	3	2	3	2	3	1
Stalking/Harassing	1	0	1	2	0	4	3	4
Individual Rights	1	0	3	1	1	4	1	2
Tax	2	0	1	3	1	5	0	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	5	1	2	1	0	1	0	1
Prison Offenses	1	0	3	1	0	2	1	0
Environmental	1	0	1	1	2	1	1	0
Food and Drug	0	1	0	2	0	2	0	1
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	0	3	1	1	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2
Antitrust	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
National Defense	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
All offenses	303	349	347	276	263	337	357	388

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%311	311
Not a U.S. citizen	19%73	73
Citizenship not known	1%4	4

50 of the 388 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black, 2 placed by CrimeDB	43%166	166
White+MENA, 2 placed by CrimeDB	33%129	129
Hispanic, 1 placed by CrimeDB	16%62	62
Asian+NHPI	1%2	2
Race unknown	8%29	29

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 388 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 5 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	33%127	127
II	15%57	57
III	17%64	64
IV	9%34	34
V	7%26	26
VI	20%79	79
Category not known	<1%1	1

All 388 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	31%119	119
Above the range	1%4	4
Below the range, government-sponsored	41%158	158
Below the range, not government-sponsored	28%107	107

All 388 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	352	238	114	67.6%	32.4%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	307	193	114	62.9%	37.1%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	271	159	112	58.7%	41.3%

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 Western District of Kentucky, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	437	364	20	53	9
FY2003	444	333	34	77	20
FY2004	440	303	25	112	15
FY2005	401	243	39	119	16
FY2006	445	279	27	139	12
FY2007	536	313	36	187	9
FY2008	497	353	26	118	12
FY2009	425	293	26	106	9
FY2010	508	362	47	99	16
FY2011	435	325	47	63	24
FY2012	411	249	65	97	45
FY2013	467	293	79	95	50
FY2014	289	220	32	37	16
FY2015	270	214	32	24	15
FY2016	332	271	46	15	15
FY2017	277	235	38	4	14
FY2018	303	252	40	11	19
FY2019	349	283	49	17	35
FY2020	347	298	35	14	21
FY2021	276	238	29	9	10
FY2022	263	235	24	4	16
FY2023	337	290	40	7	18
FY2024	357	319	31	7	22
FY2025	388	311	73	4	50

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 Western District of Kentucky, 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	437	222	17	26	161	8	3	55%	4
FY2003*	444	211	21	35	120	54	3	53%	1
FY2004	440	226	9	14	107	83	1	54%	1
FY2005*	401	227	10	20	44	100	0	59%	0
FY2006	445	252	14	12	37	125	5	60%	2
FY2007	536	286	5	18	60	167	0	54%	1
FY2008*	497	289	9	13	57	129	0	60%	3
FY2009	425	235	12	21	50	107	0	58%	2
FY2010*	508	322	14	19	55	98	0	66%	1
FY2011	435	294	15	25	37	64	0	71%	2
FY2012	411	259	7	20	39	86	0	65%	0
FY2013	467	291	16	20	42	98	0	66%	1
FY2014	289	188	8	8	38	47	0	68%	0
FY2015	270	202	1	9	21	37	0	75%	0
FY2016	332	263	6	9	21	33	0	81%	1
FY2017	277	209	6	4	18	40	0	78%	1
FY2018	303	215	7	9	10	62	0	73%	0
FY2019*	349	268	3	4	28	46	0	78%	0
FY2020	347	292	4	7	29	15	0	85%	1
FY2021	276	229	2	8	20	17	0	84%	1
FY2022	263	220	3	4	32	4	0	85%	0
FY2023	337	294	4	7	25	7	0	88%	1
FY2024*	357	322	3	1	22	9	0	91%	1
FY2025	388	356	5	6	18	3	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 Western District of Kentucky, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	40	10	434	72	46	238
FY2003*	30	6	440	56	36	231
FY2004	40	4	439	76	37	231
FY2005*	47	12	399	79	60	235
FY2006	50	15	439	82	60	264
FY2007	38	6	536	71	48	286
FY2008*	43	14	497	73	60	291
FY2009	42	9	425	75	57	235
FY2010*	38	15	507	60	46	313
FY2011	45	21	435	65	46	297
FY2012	37	12	411	62	46	238
FY2013	39	10	467	71	46	251
FY2014	38	18	289	58	37	185
FY2015	53	27	270	76	51	186
FY2016	53	30	332	71	48	247
FY2017	49	36	277	69	51	198
FY2018	45	24	303	61	42	222
FY2019*	51	24	349	66	46	271
FY2020	65	40	347	75	59	296
FY2021	72	57	276	85	70	231
FY2022	68	44	263	80	60	223
FY2023	73	48	337	82	60	298
FY2024*	78	54	357	86	60	325
FY2025	77	48	388	82	60	361

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 Western District of Kentucky by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	115	81	81	123	124	127	156	126
Larceny	96	92	112	90	80	97	90	62
Firearms	54	65	76	47	58	60	38	52
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	25	22	38	10	38	71	46	40
Fraud	28	40	25	17	30	41	52	47
Drugs - Simple Possession	14	35	26	26	38	40	23	17
Immigration	9	20	15	16	12	9	12	9
Administration of Justice	16	20	16	6	6	15	14	5
Forgery/Counterfeiting	33	8	8	11	9	15	7	3
Pornography/Prostitution	6	10	4	12	18	10	16	16
Assault	6	8	9	5	5	13	4	12
Embezzlement	11	7	7	14	4	3	6	8
Robbery	4	7	8	17	6	2	6	7
Tax Offenses	3	4	1	1	3	7	8	4
Sexual Abuse	1	5	2	1	3	4	9	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	3	1	1	0	6	10	1	4
Money Laundering	0	3	1	1	1	2	4	7
Racketeering/Extortion	5	6	5	2	0	0	0	0
Prison Offenses	2	1	0	0	0	3	1	1
Civil Rights Offenses	0	2	0	0	1	2	1	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	1
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	1	3	0	0	0	0	0
Arson	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	0
Bribery	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Murder	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Offense type not known	0	4	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	437	444	440	401	445	536	497	425

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 Western District of Kentucky by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	176	167	115	137	86	104	126	102
Fraud	70	60	54	66	41	29	48	33
Larceny	59	50	62	64	31	10	13	23
Firearms	35	29	32	32	29	33	45	38
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	35	21	35	41	33	15	20	9
Immigration	16	24	45	50	16	15	15	14
Administration of Justice	20	15	7	17	10	13	12	17
Child Pornography	13	10	17	12	13	14	15	13
Drugs - Simple Possession	18	9	10	3	2	5	2	15
Forgery/Counterfeiting	14	18	9	8	8	0	6	1
Assault	11	6	8	3	6	9	8	2
Sexual Abuse	8	4	2	8	0	1	8	3
Embezzlement	4	3	2	8	2	6	2	3
Robbery	6	2	4	2	2	3	2	1
Tax Offenses	3	3	2	2	2	3	4	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	4	8	3	2	1	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	7	3	2	0	1
Bribery	9	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
Money Laundering	5	2	0	1	0	2	1	0
Racketeering/Extortion	1	1	1	0	0	4	1	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	3	2	0	1	0
Prison Offenses	0	1	2	0	0	0	1	1
Arson	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Auto Theft	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	508	435	411	467	289	270	332	277

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 Western District of Kentucky by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	170	44%
Firearms	68	18%
Immigration	50	13%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	30	8%
Administration of Justice	13	3%
Sex Abuse	10	3%
Money Launder	9	2%
Child Pornography	8	2%
Robbery	5	1%
Murder	4	1%
Stalking/Harassing	4	1%
Commercialized Vice	2	1%
Drug Possession	2	1%
Extortion/Racketeering	2	1%
Individual Rights	2	1%
Kidnapping	2	1%
Other	2	1%
Food and Drug	1	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	<1%
National Defense	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%
Tax	1	<1%

All 388 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 Western District of Kentucky by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Black	166	2	43%
White+MENA	129	2	33%
Hispanic	62	1	16%
Asian+NHPI	2	0	1%
Race unknown	29	0	8%

All 388 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 5 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 Western District of Kentucky by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	127	33%
II	57	15%
III	64	17%
IV	34	9%
V	26	7%
VI	79	20%
Category not known	1	<1%

All 388 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 Western District of Kentucky against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	119	31%
Above the range	4	1%
Below the range, government-sponsored	158	41%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	107	28%

All 388 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 Western District of Kentucky, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	362	154	208	42.5%	57.5%
FY2007	351	166	185	47.3%	52.7%
FY2008	343	156	187	45.5%	54.5%
FY2009	368	163	205	44.3%	55.7%
FY2010	361	150	211	41.6%	58.4%
FY2011	338	179	159	53.0%	47.0%
FY2012	267	139	128	52.1%	47.9%
FY2013	278	143	135	51.4%	48.6%
FY2014	231	116	115	50.2%	49.8%
FY2015	259	113	146	43.6%	56.4%
FY2016	254	129	125	50.8%	49.2%
FY2017	292	135	157	46.2%	53.8%
FY2018	292	159	133	54.5%	45.5%
FY2019	385	225	160	58.4%	41.6%
FY2020	257	138	119	53.7%	46.3%
FY2021	265	147	118	55.5%	44.5%
FY2022	294	172	122	58.5%	41.5%
FY2023	349	230	119	65.9%	34.1%
FY2024	314	202	112	64.3%	35.7%
FY2025	352	238	114	67.6%	32.4%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	358	151	207	42.2%	57.8%
FY2007	342	157	185	45.9%	54.1%
FY2008	330	144	186	43.6%	56.4%
FY2009	358	153	205	42.7%	57.3%
FY2010	329	130	199	39.5%	60.5%
FY2011	306	147	159	48.0%	52.0%
FY2012	231	104	127	45.0%	55.0%
FY2013	243	108	135	44.4%	55.6%
FY2014	216	101	115	46.8%	53.2%
FY2015	245	100	145	40.8%	59.2%
FY2016	242	117	125	48.3%	51.7%
FY2017	280	123	157	43.9%	56.1%
FY2018	272	140	132	51.5%	48.5%
FY2019	355	195	160	54.9%	45.1%
FY2020	245	126	119	51.4%	48.6%
FY2021	255	137	118	53.7%	46.3%
FY2022	276	154	122	55.8%	44.2%
FY2023	326	207	119	63.5%	36.5%
FY2024	292	181	111	62.0%	38.0%
FY2025	307	193	114	62.9%	37.1%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	267	147	120	55.1%	44.9%
FY2023	320	201	119	62.8%	37.2%
FY2024	279	168	111	60.2%	39.8%
FY2025	271	159	112	58.7%	41.3%

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