Federal Sentencing · National · FY2025

Highest Departure Rates

The U.S. federal districts that most often sentence outside the guideline range in FY2025, ranked from USSC case-level data against the 49.4% national within-guidelines rate.

89%
Top departure rate: 49%
National within-guidelines FY2025: 20
Districts ranked

The U.S. Sentencing Commission's FY2024 Sourcebook records more than 61,000 federal sentencing cases under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The Commission's annual Sourcebook and datafiles cover all 94 federal judicial districts; see our methodology for the data refresh cadence and calculation scope.

"Departure rate" here counts how often a district's sentences fall outside the calculated guideline range - it does not by itself measure lax or defiant judges. Most departures nationwide are government-sponsored reductions for substantial assistance (cooperation with prosecutors), so a district's rate reflects its cooperation culture and offense mix along with judicial practice, not judicial character alone.

The verdict

The Northern California district departed from the federal sentencing guidelines more than any other in FY2025: 88.7% of sentences fell outside the guideline range, versus 50.6% nationally - the #20 cutoff to make this list is 73.4%.

88.7%
sentences outside guidelines: 73.4%
#20 cutoff to make this list: 11.3%
within-guideline rate: 50.6%
U.S. departure rate FY2025

For educational and research purposes only. Not legal advice. Departure rates include upward departures, downward departures, and Booker variances.

Northern California

88.7
Western Washington

85.2
Nevada

82.6
Eastern Wisconsin

81.8
Vermont

81.1
Oregon

80.8
New Hampshire

79.7
Connecticut

78.5
Eastern New York

78.3
Southern Ohio

77
Southern New York

76.5
Utah

76
Middle Tennessee

75.7
Western Wisconsin

75.6
Hawaii

75.4

What this shows Northern California had the highest below-guideline departure rate in FY2025 at 88.7% of classifiable cases. High departure rates typically reflect heavy use of substantial assistance motions (cooperation agreements with prosecutors).

Rank	District	Circuit	Cases	% Departure	% Within GL	Above	Below
#1	Northern California California	9th	364	88.7%	11.3%	2%	87%
#2	Western Washington Washington	9th	346	85.2%	14.8%	1%	84%
#3	Nevada Nevada	9th	202	82.6%	17.4%	2%	81%
#4	Eastern Wisconsin Wisconsin	7th	302	81.8%	18.2%	3%	79%
#5	Vermont Vermont	2nd	210	81.1%	18.9%	1%	81%
#6	Oregon Oregon	9th	501	80.8%	19.2%	3%	78%
#7	New Hampshire New Hampshire	1st	130	79.7%	20.3%	3%	76%
#8	Connecticut Connecticut	2nd	260	78.5%	21.5%	3%	76%
#9	Eastern New York New York	2nd	604	78.3%	21.7%	3%	76%
#10	Southern Ohio Ohio	6th	560	77.0%	23.0%	2%	75%
#11	Southern New York New York	2nd	899	76.5%	23.5%	2%	75%
#12	Utah Utah	10th	779	76.0%	24.0%	3%	73%
#13	Middle Tennessee Tennessee	6th	346	75.7%	24.3%	4%	71%
#14	Western Wisconsin Wisconsin	7th	129	75.6%	24.4%	3%	72%
#15	Hawaii Hawaii	9th	142	75.4%	24.6%	7%	69%
#16	Maryland Maryland	4th	443	74.5%	25.5%	4%	71%
#17	Southern California California	9th	2,661	74.5%	25.5%	1%	73%
#18	Massachusetts Massachusetts	1st	558	74.4%	25.6%	4%	70%
#19	Alaska Alaska	9th	138	73.9%	26.1%	8%	66%
#20	Central Illinois Illinois	7th	218	73.4%	26.6%	3%	70%

The bar to make the 20 highest-departure districts (FY2025)

Every rankable district by guideline-departure rate (% of cases sentenced outside the range); the marker is the 73.4% cutoff needed to reach this list.

73 77th percentile higher than 77% of 88 federal districts

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more federal districts. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles · FY2025

About departures: "Above GL" = upward departure (longer than guidelines). "Below GL" = downward departure (shorter than guidelines). "Booker" = post-United States v. Booker variance where judges impose outside the guidelines range under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors.

Source: United States Sentencing Commission, FY2025. Districts with 100+ cases included.

What this means

Departure rates reveal how often judges in a district step outside the guidelines, and why the direction is almost always downward.

Most departures are government-sponsored and downward. Across the federal system, the most common departure is a prosecutor's motion for reduction based on substantial assistance (USSG §5K1.1). Districts with strong cooperation cultures in white-collar, narcotics, or gang cases rank high on below-guideline departure rates.
Above-guideline departures are rare nationwide. Upward departures typically reflect aggravating factors the guidelines didn't anticipate, not general judicial severity. A district with a high upward-departure rate often handles specific offense patterns (repeat offenders, crimes against children) that trigger guideline departures. See harshest districts
Post-Booker, departures and variances blend together. Since the Supreme Court's 2005 ruling made the guidelines advisory, judges can impose any sentence citing §3553(a) factors. Modern USSC data combines true guideline departures with §3553(a) variances, so "departure rate" is best read as judicial willingness to move from the guideline range. Read about Booker

For educational and research purposes only. "Above GL" = upward departure; "Below GL" = downward departure; "Booker" = §3553(a) variance. Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, FY2025.

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Compiled by PlainSentencing, Federal Sentencing Data Publishing · August 30, 2026