District Sentencing

S.D. Cal. · fiscal year 20251 Oct 2024 – 30 Sep 2025

Districts › Southern District of California › Years

Southern District of California, fiscal year 2025

S.D. Cal. · Ninth Circuit · FY2025 nationally

The datafile contains cases reported to the Commission with sentencing documents. Sentence length statistics use the Commission's capped variable (sentences of 470 months or longer, including life, are recorded as 470 months) and exclude sentences of probation or a fine only. Figures are aggregates of past cases and are not a prediction for any case.

In fiscal year 2025 (1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025), 2,661 sentenced cases in the Southern District of California appear in the Commission's datafile. FY2024 had 61,678.

The median prison term was 9 months; 95% of cases carried a prison term. 27% of sentences were within the guideline range, 68% below it on a government motion, 4% below it for other reasons and 1% above it.

2,661cases sentencedFY2024: 2,634
9median prison monthsnational FY2025: 24
27%within guideline rangenational 52%
95%cases with a prison termnational 92%

§ 1Offence types sentenced in FY2025

Primary offence typeCasesSharePrisonMedian monthsWithin rangeBelow, gov.Below, other
Immigration1,38852.2%97%438%60%2%
Drug Trafficking88133.1%96%242%94%4%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement1134.2%84%566%25%—
Money Launder993.7%—1442%49%—
Firearms501.9%—24—58%24%
Child Pornography220.8%100%42—73%—
Prison Offenses220.8%100%650%——
Administration of Justice140.5%100%779%—0%
Other120.5%—————
Drug Possession100.4%————0%
Environmental100.4%—————
13 other offence types, pooled401.5%fewer than 10 cases each

§ 2FY2025 compared

MeasureS.D. Cal.9th Cir.All districts
Cases sentenced2,66110,99166,662
Median prison months91424
Cases with a prison term95%92%92%
Within guideline range27%32%52%
Below range, government sponsored68%54%25%
Below range, other4%14%19%
Above range1%1%5%

§ 3All fiscal years, S.D. Cal.

Fiscal yearCasesPrisonMedian monthsWithin rangeBelow, gov.Below, otherAbove
FY20183,88995%1516%76%7%1%
FY20194,08995%1218%75%6%1%
FY20203,49994%1213%79%7%1%
FY20212,92796%1810%84%4%2%
FY20223,47497%2012%81%4%3%
FY20233,18997%1811%85%4%1%
FY20242,63495%1315%80%3%1%
FY20252,66195%927%68%4%1%

← FY2024

§ 4Provenance

Source: United States Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles, fiscal years 2018–2025 (US government works), aggregated by this site; the FY2025 file is dated 29 Apr 2026. Fiscal year 2025 datafile. Counts below 10 are hidden or pooled. Errors in this site's processing are corrected at the next build; see corrections. Whole period: Southern District of California, FY2018–FY2025.