BJS releases "Federal Justice Statistics, 2019" with immigration and drugs dominating federal dockets
Via email this morning I learned of the release of this notable new data report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics titled simply "Federal Justice Statistics, 2019." The email summarized the report this way:
This report, the 33rd in an annual series which began in 1979, provides national statistics on the federal response to crime. It describes case processing in the federal criminal justice system for fiscal year 2019, including—
- investigations by U.S. attorneys
- prosecutions and declinations
- convictions and acquittals
- sentencing
- pretrial release
- detention
- appeals
- probation and parole
- prisons.
Findings are based on BJS’s Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP). The FJSP collects, standardizes, and reports on administrative data from six federal justice agencies: the U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Federal Bureau of Prisons, and U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Covering a period from Oct. 1 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019, this report captures the last full yearly snapshot of the federal criminal justice system before COVID hit in early 2020. And, though federal data always reveal that the modern federal justice system is focused particularly on immigration and drug cases, these new data from the report still paint a notable picture of our federal criminal justice system in operation while highlighting how arrest patterns and sentencing patterns diverge for the two biggest crime categories:
During FY 2019, 8 in 10 federal arrests were for immigration, drug, or supervision violations (165,123). Immigration (117,425 arrests) was the most common arrest offense in FY 2019. More than half (57%) of federal arrests involved an immigration offense as the most serious arrest offense. The next most common arrest offenses were for drug offenses (12% of all arrests) and supervision violations (11%)....
In FY 2019, a total of 58,886 federally sentenced persons were admitted to federal prison. Of these, 45,425 entered federal prison on U.S. district court commitments. Another 13,461 persons were returned to federal prison for violating conditions of probation, parole, or supervised release, or were admitted for a reason other than a U.S. district court commitment. In FY 2019, 21,075 persons entered federal prison for drug offenses, most of whom (15,574, or 74%) had been sentenced to more than 1 year.
In 2009 and 2019, most people in federal prison were serving time for a drug offense. Persons with a drug offense as the most serious commitment offense made up 47% of the prison population at fiscal year-end 2019, down from 53% at fiscal year-end 2009. Persons serving time for a weapon offense increased from 15% of the prison population in 2009 to 19% in 2019. Persons serving time for a violent offense remained at 6% in 2009 and 2019, and persons serving time for an immigration offense decreased from 12% in 2009 to 6% in 2019.
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