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Sentencing Law and Policy
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USSC publishes 2022 Annual Report and latest Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics

By Douglas Berman

Via email this morning, I learned that the US Sentencing Commission published on its website today its 2022 Annual Report and latest Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics.  Both data-rich publications have lots of interesting statistics providing lots of interesting views of the realities of (fiscal year) 2022 federal sentencing.  The email I received from the USSC flagged these “FY22 Fast Facts”:

The Sourcebook presents information on the 64,142 federal offenders sentenced in FY22 (October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022) — a sentencing caseload that increased by 6,855 from the previous fiscal year.

  • Drug trafficking, immigration, firearms, and fraud crimes together comprised 82% of the federal sentencing caseload in FY22.  

  • Methamphetamine continued to be the most common drug type in the federal system (49% in FY22).

  • The portion of drug cases involving fentanyl increased markedly over the last year, such that fentanyl cases were the third most common among all drug cases. 

  • Methamphetamine trafficking continued to be the most severely punished federal drug crime (94 months, representing an increase of 4 months from the previous year).

    • 65% of drug offenders were convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty, holding relatively steady from the previous year.