U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics ------------------------------------------------------------- Federal Justice Statistics Program ---------------------------------- Federal Justice Statistics, 2005 September 2008, NCJ 220383 ------------------------------------------------------------- This file is text only without graphics and many of the tables. A Zip archive of the tables in this report in spreadsheet format (.csv) and the full report including tables and graphics in .pdf format are available from: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/fjs05.htm ------------------------------------------------------ This report is one in a series. More recent editions may be available. To view a list of all in the series go to http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pubalp2.htm#fjs ------------------------------------------------------------- By Mark Motivans, Ph.D. BJS Statistician ------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Marshals Service arrested and booked 140,200 suspects in 2005, up from 83,324 in 1995. Material witness, immigration, and weapons were the fastest growing arrest offenses during this period. In 2005, immigration (27%) was the most prevalent arrest offense followed by drug (24%) and supervision violations (17%). Five federal judicial districts along the U.S.-Mexico border accounted for 40% of all suspects arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals Service in 2005.***Detailed data tables are available in the Federal Justice Statistics, 2005 - Statistical Tables on the BJS Website at *** The federal government reorganized key federal law enforcement agencies following the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Since 2002, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accounted for a growing share of suspects referred for federal prosecution compared to other federal law enforcement agencies. DHS agencies referred 45% of all suspects in 2004 and 2005, compared to 33% referred by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Referrals by the U.S. Department of Treasury decreased from 20% in 2001 and 2002 to 2% in 2004 and 2005. The likelihood of being prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison increased from 1995 to 2005. Sixty percent of all suspects in 2005 were prosecuted, up from 54% in 1995. In 2005, 9 in 10 (90%) defendants charged with a federal violation were convicted, up from 84% in 1995 and 79% of defendants convicted were sentenced to prison, up from 67% in 1995. Of the defendants convicted in 2005, 13% were sentenced to probation, down from 24% in 1995. The number of persons sentenced to federal prison nearly doubled from 1995 to 2005. At yearend 2005, 375,600 persons were under some form of federal supervision--62% in secure confinement and 38% in the community. The rate of growth (3.6%) in matters concluded by U.S. attorneys from 1995 to 2005 was more than three times greater than the rate of growth in the U.S. resident population (1.1%). Suspects in matters concluded by U.S. attorneys in larger federal judicial districts--districts with an average population of more than five million U.S. residents--grew at a faster rate than less populated districts from 1995 to 2005. In 2005, defendants were more likely to be convicted in large districts than in medium or small-size districts. The average prison sentence imposed was lower in larger districts, compared to less populated districts. The data in this report are from the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP), which includes source files from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the Executive Office for the U.S. Attorneys, and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC). The reporting period is based on the fiscal year, October 1 to September 30. Cocaine was the most common drug type involved in arrests by the DEA in 2005 Suspects arrested for cocaine powder and crack cocaine accounted for 42% of all suspects (29,886) arrested by the DEA in 2005 (table 2). Twenty-eight percent of suspects were arrested for cocaine powder; 14% for crack cocaine. The remaining 58% of suspects were arrested for methamphetamine (22%), marijuana (20%), opiates (8%), and other drug-related offenses (9%). Almost a fifth (19%) of all DEA arrests occurred in five federal judicial districts along the U.S.- Mexico border. Marijuana accounted for 43% of DEA arrests in the Southwest border districts, followed by methamphet-amine (22%), cocaine powder (22%), and crack cocaine (4%). The DOJ Southwest Border Initiative brings together state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the DEA, to target Mexico-based traffickers involved in organized criminal activity along the Southwest border. Most suspects arrested by the DEA for drug violations were male (84%). More than a quarter (29%) of male suspects were arrested for cocaine powder, followed by marijuana and methamphetamine (both 21%). Females accounted for 16% of all DEA drug arrests in 2005 and 1 in 5 of all methamphetamine arrests. More than a quarter (27%) of females arrested by the DEA for drug violations were arrested for methamphetamine, followed by cocaine powder (21%) and marijuana (16%). Half of all suspects arrested by the DEA were age 31 or younger. Crack cocaine suspects--half were age 28 or younger--were somewhat younger by comparison. Hispanics constituted 44% of arrestees, followed by white (27%) and black (26%) suspects. Hispanics made up more than half of arrests for cocaine powder (56%), opiates (58%), and marijuana (54%). More than three-quarters (77%) of crack cocaine arrestees were black, and half of all methamphetamine suspects were white. In 2005, 27% of suspects arrested by the DEA were non-U.S. citizens. Non-U.S. citizens accounted for 36% of DEA arrests for marijuana, 33% of DEA arrests for cocaine powder, and 32% of DEA arrests for opiates. Percents shown in this section are based on arrests with known suspect characteristics. Immigration was the most prevalent arrest offense; material witness, immigration and weapons offenses increased the most rapidly from 1995 to 2005 In 2005, the U.S. Marshals Service booked 140,200 suspects for violations of federal law, an increase of 68% (or 56,876 suspects) from 1995. Immigration offenses had the greatest net increase from 1995 to 2005. In 2005, 27% of federal bookings were immigration offenses, up from 13% in 1995. Material witness offenses increased by an annual average of 20% from 1995 to 2005. Weapons offenses were 7% of federal bookings in 2005, up from 5% in 1995. Five judicial districts along U.S.-Mexico border accounted for 40% of all federal arrests in 2005 The 1,954 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border are within the jurisdiction of five federal judicial districts--Southern and Western Districts of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and the Southern District of California--and include 22 U.S. counties contiguous to the U.S. border in four states. The Southwest border districts held 8% of the U.S. population and accounted for 40% of all federal arrests in 2005. The Southern District of Texas (43%), which contains three of the top 40 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. (Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville), and the Western District of Texas (21%) make up 64% of the length of the U.S.-Mexico border.***See Undocumented Immigrants in U.S.-Mexico Border Counties: The Costs of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Services (2007) . *** Nearly 1 in 4 (23%) of all suspects were arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals in the Southern and Western Districts of Texas. Drug and immigration charges constituted more than half of all matters concluded by U.S. attorneys in 2005 U.S. attorneys (93) serving in the 94 federal judicial districts, concluded 143,640 matters in 2005 (table 3). In 2005, more than half of all matters concluded by U.S. attorneys involved either a drug (28%) or an immigration (26%) charge. Immigration offenses grew at an average annual rate of 21% from 1995 to 2005. Property offenses, comprised mostly of fraud, decreased from 1 in 3 matters in 1995 to fewer than 1 in 5 in 2005. The basis for investigation (or lead charge) in nearly half of all matters concluded in 2005 fell under five criminal statutes: Drug--trafficking, attempt or conspiracy; immigration--illegal entry or reentry; and unlawful firearms (not shown in table). The Department of Homeland Security accounted for 45% of all referrals to U.S. attorneys in 2004 and 2005 The reorganization of key federal law enforcement agencies followed the enactment of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Act transferred the U.S. Customs Service and the Secret Service from the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) to the DHS. Responsibility for the Immigration and Naturalization Service transferred from the Department of Justice to DHS and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives transferred from the Treasury to the DOJ. DHS agencies accounted for 45% of all referrals to U.S. attorneys in the two-year period following the reorganization of federal law enforcement agencies under the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (table 4). In 2004 and 2005, law enforcement agencies within the DOJ referred 33% of suspects, compared to 56% in 2001 and 2002. Suspects referred to U.S. attorneys by the Treasury decreased to 2% of total referrals in 2004 and 2005, down from 20% of all referrals in 2001 and 2002. Growth in matters concluded by U.S. attorneys from 1995 to 2005 was greater in more populated districts In 2005, the population of each of the 94 federal judicial districts varied from a high of 18.3 million persons in the Central District of California to 81,000 persons in the District of the Northern Mariana Islands (not shown in table). From 1995 to 2005, the average growth rate (3.6%) of matters concluded by U.S. attorneys exceeded the average growth rate (1.1%) of the U.S. resident population overall. As population growth has the effect of increasing the number of large districts (population over 5 million) from 1995 to 2005, the average growth rate uses a fixed district size over this period. The average growth rate of matters concluded in large (6.2%) and medium-size (1.9%) districts was greater than the growth rate of the U.S. resident population served by each during this period. In small districts, the average growth rate was similar (less than 1%) for matters concluded and the resident population. Growth in immigration matters disposed by magistrate in the Southern District of Texas in 2004 and 2005 accounted in part for the increase in large districts (not shown in table). Sixty percent of federal suspects were prosecuted in 2005, up from 54% of suspects prosecuted in 1995 In 2005, 60% of the 143,640 suspects in matters concluded were prosecuted by U.S. attorneys (table 6). In 1995, 54% of suspects were prosecuted by U.S. attorneys.*** See Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics, 1995 available on the BJS Website at .***Approxim ately 20% of all matters were disposed and 21% were declined for prosecution. U.S. magistrate judges disposed half of all immigration matters in 2005. In the five Southwest U.S. border districts, 5% of matters were declined. The remainder were either disposed by U.S. magistrate judges (41%) or prosecuted in federal court (54%). From 1995 to 2005, smaller districts declined to prosecute a greater percentage of matters than larger districts (figure 1). Drug and weapons suspects were the most likely to be prosecuted in 2005; regulatory suspects were the least likely Suspects charged with drug (77%) and weapon (70%) offenses had the highest prosecution rates in 2005, followed by violent (58%), property (54%), immigration (52%), and public-order offenses (41%). In 2005, medium-size districts (66%) prosecuted a greater percentage of suspects than small (59%) and large (56%) districts (table 6). Suspects involved in property or public-order offenses (including regulatory offenses) were most likely to be declined for prosecution (both 38%). In 2005, U.S. attorneys declined to file charges for case-related reasons including weak evidence (27%), referred or handled in other authority for prosecution (21%), and criminal intent not established or not a federal offense (21%). Matters settled through pretrial diversion, restitution and administrative alternatives accounted for about 4% of all matters declined for prosecution in 2005 (not shown in table). The median time from the receipt of a matter by a U.S. attorney's office to a decision--prosecute, decline, or dismiss--was 28 days in 2005. For matters declined, the time from receipt of the matter to a decision took longer (median of 400 days) than both prosecutions (median of 24 days) and matters disposed by a U.S. magistrate (median of 3 days). Ninety percent of defendants were convicted in 2005, up from 84% in 1995 Of the 86,680 defendants adjudicated in 2005, 90% were convicted (table 7). Conviction rates varied by type of offense. Almost all (96%) defendants in cases concluded with an immigration violation were convicted, followed by defendants with weapons and drug violations (both 91%). In 2005, adjudicated defendants were either convicted following a guilty plea (86%) or by bench or jury trial (4%) (table 8). About 1 in 10 (9%) adjudicated defendants were dismissed and less than 1% were acquitted. Weapons violations and violent offenses had the highest percent of trials (both 8%). Public order defendants had the highest percent of dismissals (19%). Defendants adjudicated in the Southwest U.S. border districts in 2005 had a higher conviction rate (95%) than in non-border districts (88%). Large districts (over 5 million U.S. residents) had higher conviction rates than medium (1 to 5 million residents) and small districts (under 1 million residents). In 2005, the median time from case filing to disposition was 6.8 months. Dismissals and guilty pleas took less time to process than trials. Cases concluded by a bench or jury trial decreased by 18% from 4,809 in 1995 to 3,930 in 2005. Nearly 8 in 10 convicted felons were sentenced to prison in 2005--up from 7 in 10 in 1995 More than three-quarters (79%) of defendants (78,042) convicted in 2005 were sentenced to prison, compared to 67% of convictions in 1995 (table 9). The average prison term imposed in 2005 was 61 months, down from 63 months in 1995. Prison sentences in 2005 for drug offenses were 83 months on average, compared to 96 months for violent offenses and 84 months for weapons offenses. In 2005, 13% percent of defendants were sentenced to probation, down from 24% in 1995. A smaller percentage of defendants were ordered to pay a fine only (3%) in 2005 than in 1995 (7%). Felony convictions in federal court increased at a faster rate than in state court from 1996 to 2004 Felony convictions in federal court increased from 4% of the nation's felony convictions in 1996 to 6% in 2004 (table 10). Felony convictions in federal court increased at a faster rate (25% per year) than felony convictions in state court (5% per year) from 1996 to 2004. In 2004, federal courts handled 20% of all state and federal felony weapons convictions--up from 9% in 1994 (figure 2). Federal courts sentenced 7% of the nation's convicted felons to incarceration in 2004, up from 5% in 1996. In 2004, felons were more likely to receive an incarceration sentence in federal (85%) than in state (70%) court (not shown in table). Federal courts (61 months) imposed longer sentences on average in 2004, compared to state courts (37 months). During 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals received 14,644 criminal appeals--a 44% increase from 1995 The number of criminal appeals increased on average 4.1% annually from 1995 to 2005 (table 11). Appeals filed by immigration offenders increased on average 25% per year from 1995 to 2005. About 4 in 10 appeals filed in 2005 were for drug offenses, followed by immigration (17%), weapons (16%), and violent (5%) offenses. In 1995, there were 26 appeals per 100 convictions, compared to 20 per 100 in 2005. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of convictions outpaced the number of appeals in border districts. In 2005, there were 13 appeals per 100 convictions, compared to 16 per 100 in 1995. Offenders sentenced in the Southwest border districts accounted for 19% of all appeals in 2005, compared to 10% in 1995. Appeals in large districts grew at a faster average growth rate from 1995 to 2005 than in medium and small districts. In each district size, the growth in the number of defendants convicted during this period was greater than the number of appeals filed. On September 30, 2005, 375,631 persons were under federal supervision--62% in secure confinement and 38% in the community Of the 375,631 persons under some form of federal supervision in 2005, 3 in 5 (234,425) were in secure confinement, including detention pending trial and imprisonment following imposition of sentence. Eighty percent of persons in secure confinement were serving a prison term following a conviction; 20% of persons in secure confinement were awaiting case disposition (not shown in table). There were 141,206 persons under supervision in the community in 2005. Offenders sentenced to probation and sentenced offenders who had been released from prison to serve the remainder of their term under post-prison supervision accounted for 79% of persons under community supervision in 2005; defendants released pending trial accounted for 21% (not shown in table). Methodology This report uses data from the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP) including source files from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys; and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The reporting period is based on the fiscal year, October 1 to September 30. For suspects in matters concluded, the lead charge is the basis for investigation. In cases terminated in U.S. district court, the most serious terminating offense is the offense yielding the maximum statutory penalty. This report combines the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands as one U.S. attorney is appointed to serve both districts (for a total of 93 districts). District size is based on a district's annual U.S. resident population for each year displayed in report tables. For computing the average growth rate (in tables 5 and 11), district size is based on the average population in that district from 1995 to 2005. Each of the 93 federal districts were classified into large (19 districts), medium (58 districts), and small (16 districts) categories for the purpose of analysis. The average number of authorized federal judgeships per district from 1995 to 2005 coincides with the population classification used in this report as follows: District Number of Average U.S., Average size districts resident number of Population authorized 1995-2005 judgeships, 1995-2005 --------------------------------------------------- Small 16 666,583 4 Medium 58 2,434,043 6 Large 19 7,055,208 14 --------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- The source for the number of authorized judgeships from 1995-2005 is the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Federal Court Management Statistics (see: http:// www.uscourts.gov/fcmstat/index.html). The National Judicial Reporting Program (NJRP) collects data every two years on felony convictions in a nationally representative stratified clustered sample of state courts from 300 counties (see: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/ NACJD.htm). Population estimates were derived by aggregating county-level data from the U.S. Census County Estimate File to the judicial district level. Source data were obtained from (last accessed on September 1, 2008). Detailed data tables are available in the Federal Justice Statistics, 2005 - Statistical Tables on the BJS Website at . ------------------------------------------------------------ The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Jeffrey L. Sedgwick is director. BJS Bulletins present the first release of findings from permanent data collection programs. Mark Motivans, Ph.D., wrote this report. Matthew R. Durose verified the report. Georgette Walsh edited the report, Tina Dorsey produced the report, and Jayne Robinson prepared the report for final printing, under the supervision of Doris J. James. ------------------------------------------------------------- Data prepared by the Urban Institute under BJS grant number 2005-BJ-CX-K004 were used for this report. Principal staff at the Urban Institute were Laura Winterfield, William Adams, Mark Coggeshall, Avi Bhati, Kamala Mallik Kane, and Barbara Parthasarathy. This report was made possible through the cooperation of the following federal agencies and their staff: The United States Marshals Service (USMS), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC), and the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA). The staff who provided expert advice about the source records include: Joe Briggs and Chad Niebauer (USMS); James Tauber (DEA); Pragati Patrick (AOUSC); and Christopher Jeffries and Donna Kidd (EOUSA). September 2008, NCJ 220383 ------------------------------------------------------------- This report in portable document format and in ASCII and its related statistical data and tables are available at the BJS World Wide Web Internet site: ------------------------------------------------------------- Office of Justice Programs Innovation Partnerships Safer Neighborhoods http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov ------------------------------------------------------------- 9/30/2008 /JER