Appendix A
Descriptions of Datafiles, Variables, and Footnotes Introduction
Federal courts are required to forward to the Commission sentencing information
on all defendants sentenced under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA), except
in cases that solely involve petty offenses. Standard information on each case
is computerized for analysis using data from case files received.
Tables in this report use the Commission’s datafile, USSCFY01, which includes information on the 59,897 defendants sentenced under the SRA during fiscal year 2001 (October 1, 2000, through September 30, 2001), for whom data were received as of May 1, 2002. Given the nature of the datafile and reporting requirements, the following are not included: cases initiated but for which no convictions were obtained, defendants convicted for whom no sentences were yet issued, and defendants sentenced but for whom no data were submitted to the Commission.
Because the Commission collects information only on cases sentenced under the guidelines, information on cases sentenced under prior law (preguidelines) during FY2001 is not available in this dataset. When cases are sentenced under both prior law and the guidelines, only the guideline relevant information is coded in the dataset.
Variables
The following section describes the variables used in this report.
Age
The Age of the defendant on the day of sentencing is calculated using
the defendant’s date of birth as reported in the Presentence Report and
the date of sentencing as reported in the Judgment of Conviction order.
Appeals
Appeals data are derived from analyses of opinions and orders from
the courts of appeals. For purposes of the appeals data, an appeals case is
one in which a federal court of appeals has issued an opinion or order. Opinions
and orders submitted by the courts are collected and coded. All appeals cases
are coded for identifying data, such as parties, disposition, date, and circuit.
In cases in which the appellant is appealing a sentencing issue, the sentencing
issue is coded. Conviction issues are not coded.
Average Length of Imprisonment
Using sentencing information obtained from the Judgment of Conviction order,
Average Length of Imprisonment is reported as the mean and median terms
of imprisonment ordered for cases committed to the Bureau of Prisons. Cases
that receive no term of imprisonment are not included in the average. Cases
for which a term of imprisonment is ordered but the length is indeterminable
also are excluded. In most cases for which the exact term is unknown, the Judgment
of Conviction order merely specifies a sentence of time served. Prior to fiscal
year 1993, the Commission defined life sentences as 360 months. However, to
reflect life expectancy of federal criminal defendants more precisely and to
provide more accurate length of imprisonment information, life sentences are
now defined as 470 months.
Chapter Two Guideline Applied
Chapter Two Guideline Applied represents the offense specific guideline
applied from that chapter. For cases in which a cross reference is used,
the guideline that most fully explains the sentence is shown. The guideline
applied is the last guideline referenced, and may be equivalent to either the
guideline referenced by statute or the cross-referenced guideline.
Circuit
Information on judicial Circuit is generated by computer using the
location of the judicial district in which the defendant was sentenced.
Citizenship Status
Information on the Citizenship Status of defendants is obtained from
the Presentence Report. Defendants are categorized as one of the following:
“U.S. citizen,” “resident alien,” “illegal alien,”
and “non-U.S. citizen, alien status unknown.” The latter three categories
are collapsed into the category of “non-U.S. citizen.”
Country of Citizenship
Information on the Country of Citizenship for non-U.S. citizen defendants
is obtained from the Presentence Report and includes the most frequently occurring
countries of origin for non-U.S. citizens. Countries appearing less than 50
times are collapsed into the “other” category.
Criminal History Category
Criminal History Category is derived from the Report on the Sentencing
Hearing provided by the sentencing court. Tables involving the Report on the
Sentencing Hearing are based on the cases for which the Commission has received
such documents.
Criminal history category is taken from the Presentence Report when the Report on the Sentencing Hearing is not available. While the court may disagree with Presentence Report information, the criminal history category is the same in more than 95 percent of cases for which both documents were received.
Degree of Departures
Degree of Departure is based on the difference between the length of
imprisonment (not including any months of alternative confinement as defined
in §5C1.1) and the endpoint of the applicable guideline range. Information
on Degree of Departure is calculated based on the extent of departure
from the guideline minimum for downward departure and substantial assistance
cases and is measured from the guideline maximum for upward departure cases.
Life sentences, sentences of probation, and cases where the guideline minimum
is zero months are all excluded from all degree of departure calculations due
to the logical difficulty in calculating a departure from these values.
Departures
Information on Departures is obtained primarily from the Report on
the Sentencing Hearing. A case is determined to involve no departure if the
sentence imposed is within the guideline range established by the court. If
the sentence falls outside this range, the case is coded as a departure, and
the applicable reasons given by the court are noted.
For cases in which no Report on the Sentencing Hearing is provided or the information contained in it is insufficient, the sentence from the Judgment of Conviction order is compared to the guideline range recommended in the Presentence Report. If the sentence imposed falls within the recommended range, the case is coded as within the guideline range. However, if the sentence falls outside the guideline range recommended by the probation officer, the case is not coded as a departure. Because the court may have changed the PSR findings, departure status is coded as missing departure status. Additionally, cases in which no guideline sentencing range was established (e.g., no analogous guideline offenses) are included in the missing departure category.
District
Information on the judicial District in which sentencing occurred is
obtained from the Judgment of Conviction order.
Document Submission Rates
Three documents are represented in Table 1: Judgment of Conviction order (J&C),
Presentence Report (PSR), and Report on the Sentencing Hearing. The J&C
and PSR are generally submitted in a standardized format. PSRs waived by the
court are indicated in a separate column. Standardized forms for the Report
on the Sentencing Hearing are most frequently submitted; however, transcripts
or partial transcripts from the sentencing hearing are also included as Report
on the Sentencing Hearing Received.
Drug Amount
In a drug case, the amount of the controlled substance is obtained from the
Judgment of Conviction order or the Presentence Report and included in the USSCFY01
datafile. It is used to apply the base offense level from USSG §2D1.1.
Table 42 shows the number of cases, mean drug weight, and median drug weight
for cases involving specific drug types that were sentenced under USSG §2D1.1
and received one of four relevant base offense levels.
Drug Offense Guideline
Drug Offense Guideline information is obtained from the Presentence
Report and is based on the guidelines in USSG Chapter Two, Part D. The six guidelines
featured in the tables (§2D1.1, §2D1.2, §2D1.5, §2D1.6,
§2D1.8, and §2D2.1) represent the vast majority of drug cases.
Drug Type
Information on Drug Type is obtained from the Judgment of Conviction
order or the Presentence Report. It is recorded only if at least one of the
statutes of conviction recorded by the Commission is a title 21 U.S. Code offense
or a non-title 21 offense when the underlying conduct involves a controlled
substance. Information about type of drug in the text and tables is derived
from the primary drug type (i.e., the type that produces the highest base offense
level). The category Marijuana includes Hashish and Hashish oil. The
category Methamphetamine includes pure (actual) methamphetamine, “ICE”,
methamphetamine mixture, and methamphetamine precursors. (“ICE”
has been included in the methamphetamine category since FY1996). All drug types
not listed separately in this report are collapsed into the “other”
drug category.
Education
Information on education of the defendant is obtained from the Presentence Report
and is collapsed into general categories. Technical, military, and vocational
training as well as course work at community colleges are included in the Some
College category. A general equivalency degree (GED) is included in the
High School Graduate category.
Fines and Restitution
Fines and Restitution information is obtained from the Judgment of
Conviction order. The Total Receiving Fines and Restitution category
includes the number of cases ordered to pay a fine, make restitution, or both.
Fine information may also include cost of supervision. Cases involving fines
and restitution overlap with other sentencing categories because fines and restitution
may be ordered in conjunction with the imposition of other sanctions.
The average dollar Amount of Payment Ordered, presented both in Mean and Median values, is the dollar amount of the fine and the restitution ordered for cases involving economic sanctions. Cases that receive no fine or restitution are not included in the calculation of the average. The number of cases upon which the average is based may not equal the Total Receiving Fines and Restitution; this is due to the failure of some Judgment of Conviction orders to specify the dollar amount ordered. The Sum of payment ordered reflects the total dollar amount of fines and restitution ordered, excluding cases in which the amount is indeterminable. The median of payments ordered reflects the amount located at the fiftieth percentile of all amounts ordered, excluding cases in which the amount was indeterminable or zero.
Gender
Gender of the defendant is obtained from the Presentence Report or
probation office.
Guideline Defendants Sentenced
Each Guideline Defendant Sentenced or case, as recorded by the USSC,
involves a single sentencing event for a single defendant. Multiple counts,
and even multiple indictments, are considered a single sentencing event if sentenced
at the same time by the same judge. A single defendant may appear in more than
one case if involved in more than one sentencing event during the fiscal year.
Codefendants in the same sentencing will each appear as separate cases.
Guideline Sentencing Range
The Guideline Sentencing Range is taken from the Report on the Sentencing
Hearing provided by the sentencing court. Alternatively, if the Report on the
Sentencing Hearing is missing, then the information is taken from the Presentence
Report.
For tables in this report, unless otherwise indicated, the guideline sentencing range does not take into account applicable statutory restrictions on either the maximum or the minimum of the range; therefore, it may differ from the available range, which does take into account the statutory restrictions.
Length of Imprisonment
Using sentencing information obtained from the Judgment of Conviction order,
Length of Imprisonment is provided only for cases committed to the
Bureau of Prisons. Imprisonment length includes prison sentences only (excluding
any imposition of home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement).
Life sentences are assigned a prison length of 470 months, based on U.S. Census
Bureau average life expectancy by age of federal defendants at sentencing. Sentences
of a partial month have been rounded to the nearest month. Differences between
the number of cases included in imprisonment statistics (e.g., mean
or median) and the total number of defendants sentenced to a term of imprisonment
are due to missing information on the exact length of the term ordered. In most
cases for which the exact term is unknown, the Judgment of Conviction order
merely specifies a sentence to Time Served.
Mandatory Minimum
Information on Mandatory Minimum penalties is obtained from the Presentence
Report and represents the assessment of the probation officer. The sentencing
court may alter this mandatory minimum information; occasionally such changes
are not reflected in the documents received by the Commission.
The majority of cases reported in the Mandatory Minimum category involve drug cases in which the amount of controlled substance triggers a mandatory minimum penalty. However, drug cases in which the amount of controlled substance is insufficient to trigger a mandatory minimum may still be reported in the Mandatory Minimum category due to convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) – use of a firearm in a crime of violence or controlled substance offense. Occasionally, drug cases may involve mandatory minimum penalties for both drug amount and firearm use.
A mandatory minimum of 12 months or less is included in the No Mandatory Minimum category.
Mode of Conviction
Information on Mode of Conviction is obtained from the Judgment of
Conviction order. Defendants sentenced subsequent to a plea of guilty or nolo
contendere are included in the Plea category. Defendants sentenced
subsequent to a trial by judge or jury are included in the Trial category.
For the purposes of statistical analysis, cases involving both a plea and a
trial are excluded from the table.
Offense Level
The final Offense Level used in these tables is taken from the Report
on the Sentencing Hearing provided by the sentencing court. Alternatively, if
the Report on the Sentencing Hearing is missing, but the court indicates that
it accepts the values contained in the Presentence Report, the guideline factors
are taken from the Presentence Report.
Organizations
Organization is a “person other than an individual,” according
to 18 U.S.C. § 18. The term includes corporations, partnerships, associations,
joint-stock companies, unions, trusts, pension funds, unincorporated organizations,
governments and political subdivisions thereof, and non-profit organizations.
Position of Sentence
The Position of Sentence describes within-range guideline sentences
in terms of their relative positions within their applicable guideline ranges.
Only cases with complete information from the Report on the Sentencing Hearing
are used for this table. The Position of Sentence is determined by
dividing the available range in half. This allows a sentence to fall into one
of five distinct categories: the guideline minimum; the exact midpoint of the
range; the guideline maximum; the lower-half of the range (when not at the guideline
minimum); and the upper-half of the range (when not at the guideline maximum).
The “available range” is the guideline range with applicable statutory
restrictions on either the maximum or the minimum of the range taken into account.
(For cases in which guideline §5C1.2 was applied, in accordance with the
provisions of the guideline, the statutory restrictions on the range are those
from 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f).) In cases in which the sentence is located outside
the available sentencing range, departure information is provided as reported
by the sentencing court. Differences in the number and percentage of cases in
each range quarter may differ from other tables presented in this report; this
is due to the exclusion of any case missing both complete information from the
Report on the Sentencing Hearing and information on statutory minima and maxima.
Primary Offense Category
Information on Primary Offense Category is obtained from the Judgment
of Conviction order. The “primary” offense code for the case is
determined to be the offense code applicable for the count of conviction with
the highest statutory maximum. If two or more counts are found to have the same
statutory maximum, “primary” offense is selected according to which
count of conviction has the highest statutory minimum. Finally, in the event
of a small number of cases still tied, the offense type that best represented
the nature of the criminal behavior is chosen.
For convenience in analysis, a summary variable describing “primary offense category” is derived. This code is generated by grouping similar primary offense codes into a smaller set of categories. Listed below are the offense types that are grouped into each of the primary offense categories used in this report:
Murder includes first degree murder, felony with death resulting, second degree murder, and conspiracy to murder (with death resulting).
Manslaughter includes both involuntary and voluntary manslaughter.
Kidnapping/Hostage includes ransom taking and hostage/kidnapping.
Sexual Abuse includes sexual abuse of a minor, sexual abuse of a ward, criminal sexual abuse, and abusive sexual contact.
Assault includes attempt to commit murder, assault with intent to murder, threatening communication, aggravated assault, conspiracy with attempt to murder, obstructing or impeding officers, minor assault, and conspiracy that includes assault with attempt to murder.
Robbery includes bank robbery, aggravated bank robbery, Hobbs Act robbery, mail robbery, other robbery, and carjacking.
Arson also includes damage by explosives.
Drugs: Trafficking includes drug distribution/manufacture, drug distribution/manufacture – conspiracy, continuing criminal enterprise, drug distribution – employee under 21, drug distribution near school, drug import/export, drug distribution to person under 21, and establish/rent drug operation.
Drugs: Communication Facility includes use of a communication facility in a drug trafficking offense.
Drugs: Simple Possession includes distribution of a small amount of marijuana and simple possession.
Firearms includes unlawful possession/transportation of firearms or ammunition; possession of guns/explosives on aircraft; unlawful trafficking, etc. in explosives; possession of guns/explosives in federal facility/schools; use of fire or explosives to commit felony; and use of firearms or ammunition during crime.
Burglary/Breaking & Entering includes post office burglary, burglary of DEA premises (pharmacy), burglary of other structure, bank burglary, and burglary of a residence.
Auto Theft includes auto theft (including parts), receipt/possession of stolen auto or parts, and altered identification numbers/trafficking in altered (auto).
Larceny includes bank larceny, theft from benefit plans, other theft – mail/post office, receipt/possession of stolen property (not auto), other theft – property, larceny/theft-mail/post office, larceny/theft – property (not auto), and theft from labor union.
Fraud includes odometer laws and regulations, insider trading, and fraud and deceit.
Embezzlement includes embezzlement – property, embezzlement from labor unions, embezzlement – mail/post office, embezzlement from benefit plans, and bank embezzlement.
Forgery/Counterfeiting includes counterfeit bearer obligations and forgery/counterfeit (non-bearer obligations).
Bribery includes payment to obtain office, bribe involving officials, bribery – bank loan/commercial, loan or gratuity to bank examiner, etc., gratuity involving officials, and bribe or gratuity affecting employee plan.
Tax Offenses include receipt/trafficking in smuggled property, aid, etc., in tax fraud; fraud – tax returns, statements, etc.; fraud, false statement – perjury; failure to file or pay; tax evasion; evading import duties (smuggle); failure to collect or account for taxes; regulatory offenses – taxes; failure to deposit taxes in trust account; non-payment of taxes; conspiracy to avoid taxes; and offenses relating to withholding statements.
Money Laundering includes laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transaction from unlawful activity, failure to file currency report, and failure to report monetary transactions.
Extortion/Racketeering includes extortionate extension of credit, blackmail, extortion by force or treat, Hobbs Act extortion, travel in aid of racketeering, crime relating to racketeering, and violent crimes in aid of racketeering.
Gambling/Lottery includes engaging in a gambling business, transmission of wagering information, obstruction to facilitate gambling, and interstate transportation of wagering paraphernalia.
Civil Rights includes interference with rights under color of law; force or threats to deny benefits or rights; obstructing an election or registration; manufacture, etc. – eavesdropping device; other deprivations/discrimination; obstructing correspondence; peonage, servitude, and slave trade; intercept communication or eavesdropping; and conspiracy to deprive individual of civil rights.
Immigration includes trafficking in U.S. passports; trafficking in entry documents; failure to surrender naturalization certificate; fraudulently acquiring U.S. passports; smuggling, etc.; unlawful alien; fraudulently acquiring entry documents; and unlawfully entering U.S.
Pornography, Prostitution includes dealing in obscene matter, transportation of minor for prostitution/sex, transportation for prostitution/sex (adult), sexual exploitation of minors, materials involving sexual exploitation of minors, obscene telephone or broadcasting, and selling or buying children for pornography.
Offenses In Prisons includes contraband in prisons, riots in federal facilities, and escape.
Administration of Justice includes commission of offense while on release, bribery of a witness, failure to appear by defendant, contempt, failure to appear by material witness, obstruction of justice, payment of witness, perjury or subornation of perjury, misprision of a felony, and accessory after the fact.
Environmental/Fish And Wildlife includes waste discharge, specially protected fish, wildlife, and plants (waste discharge is presented as a separate offense category in Tables 51 and 52).
National Defense includes evasion of export controls and exportation of arms, etc., without license.
Antitrust includes bid-rigging, price-fixing, and market allocation agreement.
Food and Drug includes false information or tampering with products, tampering to injure business, tampering with risk of death or injury, and violation of regulations involving food, drugs, etc.
Other Miscellaneous Offenses includes illegal use of regulatory number – drugs; illegal transfer of drugs; illegal regulatory number to get drugs; drug paraphernalia; forgery/fraud for drugs; dangerous devices to protect drugs; manufacture drugs against quota; endangering life while manufacturing drugs; operate carrier under drugs; endangerment from hazardous/toxic substances; mishandling substances, records, etc.; threat of tampering with public water system; hazardous devices of federal lands; mishandling other pollutants, records, etc.; improper storage of explosives; recordkeeping violation – explosives; possession of other weapon – on aircraft, in federal facility; failure to report theft of explosives; feloniously mailing injurious articles; transport of hazardous material in commerce; interference with flight crew, other offense – aboard aircraft; criminal infringement of copyright/trademark; conflict of interest; unauthorized payment; non-drug forfeiture; impersonation; false statement to Employee Act; reporting offenses – labor related; criminal infringement of trademark; unlawful conduct relating to control/cigarettes; trespass; destruction of property; destruction of mail; aircraft piracy; conspiracy to murder (no death, assault, or attempt); conspiracy to commit murder; and all other miscellaneous offenses not previously listed in any of the other categories.
Race
Information on Race of the defendant is obtained from the Presentence
Report in separate categories of race and ethnicity (White, Black, Native
American or Alaskan Native, and Asian or Pacific Islander). Ethnicity
data indicate whether a defendant is of Hispanic origin. (For purposes of this
report, defendants whose ethnic background is designated as Hispanic are represented
as Hispanic in all tables regardless of racial background.) The Other
category includes defendants of Native American, Alaskan Native, and Asian or
Pacific Islander origin. Additionally, for cases in which information on defendant
race could not be obtained but the offender was sentenced to prison, the Commission
performed a search for the missing demographic information using the Bureau
of Prisons SENTRY system.
Reasons for Departure
Reasons for Departure as given by the sentencing judge are coded for
cases involving departures. This information is obtained from the Report on
the Sentencing Hearing when available. Because courts often provide more than
one reason for departure, the frequencies on the reason for departure tables
may add up to more than the number of cases with reasons for departure.
Safety Valve
Safety Valve cases were identified by the application of USSG §2D1.1
(b)(6) (Note that the specific offense characteristic notation varies from year
to year. The 2000 Guidelines Manual, the most recent manual used on the fiscal
year 2001 datafile, cites §2D1.1 (b)(6) as the applicable specific offense
characteristic.). The application of this specific offense characteristic removes
the statutory minimum penalties associated with drug distribution of certain
amounts. Also, the defendant receives a two-offense-level reduction, pursuant
to USSG §2D1.1 (b)(6).
Sentencing Appeals Disposition
Data is derived from analysis of opinions and orders from the courts of appeals.
The appeals disposition code indicates the disposition of the case. Affirmed
cases are cases in which an appellate court holds that the judgment of the court
below is correct and should stand. Reversed cases are those in which an appellate
court sets aside, annuls, vacates, or changes to the contrary the decision of
a lower court. Affirmed and Reversed cases are cases in which an appellate
court affirms one or more, and reverses one or more of the issues that were
appealed. Dismissed cases are those an appellate court terminates without
a complete trial and without issuing a holding. A dismissal of an appeal places
the parties in the same condition as if no appeal had been taken or allowed,
and thus acts as a confirmation of the judgment of the court below.
Sentencing Issues Appealed
Data are derived from analyses of opinions and orders from the courts of appeals.
Each sentencing issue raised by the appellant is coded by the guideline involved
and description of the particular issue addressed within that guideline. Challenges
related to sentencing, but not to guideline application, are coded under categories
reserved for “constitutional issues” or “other general sentencing
issues.”
Types of Appeal
Data are derived from analyses of opinions and orders from the courts of appeals.
The type of appeals code indicates the types of issues that are raised in the
case. The types of appeals codes are (1) sentencing issues only, (2) sentencing
and conviction issues, (3) conviction issues only, and (4) unknown.
For coding purposes, an appeal involves sentencing issues when the appellant either argues that the district court erred during the sentencing phase or raises issues concerning the applicability of the guidelines to the case at hand. In some cases, the appellant is challenging some part of the plea agreement involving sentencing. These issues are also considered sentencing issues. An appeal involves conviction issues when the appellant claims some sort of error occurred during the investigation, trial, or jury deliberations that did not involve sentencing or the sentencing guidelines.
Type of Guideline Sentence Imposed
Using sentencing information obtained from the Judgment of Conviction order, the Total Receiving Prison column includes the number of defendants sentenced (and percent of Total Cases) who received a commitment to the Bureau of Prisons. This column is the sum of cases in Prison and the Prison/Community Split Sentence categories.
The Prison category includes defendants sentenced to a term of imprisonment only, with no additional conditions of community confinement, home detention or intermittent confinement.The Prison/Community Split Sentence category includes all cases in which defendants received prison and conditions of alternative confinement as defined in USSG §5C1.1. This category includes, but is not limited to, Zone A, Zone B, or Zone C cases receiving prison with additional conditions of a term of community confinement, home detention, or intermittent confinement.
The Total Receiving Probation column includes the number of defendants sentenced (and the percent of Total Cases) who received a term of probation with or without a condition of community confinement, intermittent confinement, or home detention. This column also represents the total of the Probation Only and Probation and Confinement categories.
The Probation Only column includes the number of defendants who received a term of probation without a condition of community confinement, intermittent confinement, or home detention.
Probation and Confinement includes the number of defendants who received a term of probation with a condition of community confinement, intermittent confinement, or home detention.
Year
Information on Year is obtained from the Judgment of Conviction order. Unless
otherwise indicated, the sentencing year is defined as the fiscal year in which
the defendant was sentenced.
Zone
The Sentencing Table is categorized into sentencing Zones. Courts may
impose various types of punishment as alternatives to imprisonment. Alternative
types of punishment include: probation, home detention, community confinement,
and intermittent confinement. Imposition of alternative types of punishment
is restricted to defendants within specific sentencing zones.
Zone A: a guideline range is in Zone A when the minimum term of imprisonment specified is zero months;
Zone B: a guideline range is in Zone B when the minimum term of imprisonment specified is at least one but not more than six months;
Zone C: a guideline range is in Zone C when the minimum term of imprisonment specified is eight months when criminal history category is four or less, and nine months if the criminal history category is greater than four;
Zone D: a guideline range is in Zone D when the minimum term of imprisonment specified is twelve months or more.
See Chapter 5 of the Guidelines Manual for a description of alternatives to imprisonment and the conditions under which they are applicable.
Footnotes
The following footnotes pertain to the “Fiscal Year 2001 Guidelines Sentences”
tables provided in Appendix B. Actual figures provided in these footnotes apply
only to the national data table. Additional information describing variables
and data used are provided earlier in this appendix.
1 Cases with missing or indeterminable information on gender or race are excluded. Nationally, this involves the exclusion of 1,404 cases because of missing information on gender (42) or race (1,395).
2 Cases with missing or indeterminable departure information are excluded. Nationally, this involves the exclusion of 5,046 cases.
3Cases with missing or indeterminable information on the age or gender of the defendant are excluded. Nationally, this involves the exclusion of 1,631 cases.
4 Two hundred twenty-five cases with missing or indeterminable information on mode of conviction are excluded.
5 Of the 59,897 guideline cases, 1,308 are excluded due to one or more of the following reasons: missing information on type of sentence (396), cases in which no prison or probation was imposed (845), or cases in which primary offense type was missing (206).
6 Cases in the Total Receiving Prison and Total Receiving Probation categories total 100 percent of all cases; however, Cases Involving Fines and Restitution overlap with the other categories because fines and restitution may be ordered in conjunction with the imposition of other sanctions.
Cases involving no term of imprisonment and cases with indeterminable terms are excluded from the calculation of the Average Months Prison category. Any sentence of days with at least one month of prison is rounded up to the nearest month. Any sentence of days of less than a month is expressed as a fraction of the month. Life sentences are included in these calculations as 470 months. The 59,691 cases included in the Total Cases column reflects 206 cases that are excluded due to missing information on primary offense type.
Cases involving no term of imprisonment and cases with indeterminable terms are excluded from the category Length of Prison Term. Any sentence of days with at least one month of prison is rounded up to the nearest month. Any sentence of days of less than a month is expressed as a fraction of the month. Life sentences are included in the category Over 60 Months.
7 Cases receiving no order of fine or restitution are excluded from the calculation of the Total Receiving Fines and Restitution. The number of cases upon which the average is based may not equal the Total Receiving Fines and Restitution due to the failure of some Judgment of Conviction Orders to specify the dollar amount ordered. Of the 59,897 guideline cases, 985 cases missing offense type or fine and restitution information are excluded from these calculations. Of the remaining 58,912 cases with such information,42,137 cases with no order of fine or restitution ordered are excluded from these calculations.