The United States is divided into 94 federal judicial districts, each containing the federal trial courts, where criminal and civil cases are tried. Congress placed each of the 94 districts in 1 of 12 regional circuits, each containing a court of appeals, to which district court decisions may be appealed. Figure 2 is a map of the United States showing the geographical boundaries of the 94 district courts and the 12 regional circuit courts of appeals (including 11 numbered circuits and the District of Columbia Circuit.). There is also a Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit with nationwide jurisdiction for specific types of cases, such as patent appeals. This court does not hear cases involving the federal sentencing guidelines. In 1984, to help ensure that similar crimes committed by similar criminals were punished with similar sentences, Congress, under the Sentencing Reform Act, established the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) and directed that it develop a comprehensive sentencing scheme for federal crimes. USSC established guideline ranges for the length of federal prison sentences taking into account offender and offense characteristics to establish appropriate sentence terms. The sentencing guidelines cover more than 90 percent of all felony and Class A misdemeanor cases in the federal courts. The sentencing guidelines do not apply to Class B or C misdemeanors or infractions, offenses with a maximum prison exposure of 6 months or less. Applying USSC’s guidance, federal district judges in the 94 federal district courts determine the appropriate sentencing guideline range for an offender based on various factors related to (1) the offense and (2) the offender. The offense is assigned an offense level, which for drug offenses is based on several factors such as the quantity and type of drug involved and whether the offense involved violence. The offender is also assigned a criminal history category based on the number of criminal history points. Criminal history points reflect the severity of an offender’s prior criminal record. Taken in combination, the offense level and criminal history category correlate with a sentencing guideline range, which is expressed in months. In addition, for some drug offenses where a mandatory minimum sentence applies, the applicable mandatory minimum sentence supplants the lower end of the applicable guidelines sentencing range. For example, as shown in figure 3, a convicted offender whose offense of conviction is assigned an offense level of 25 and who has a “criminal history category I” should be sentenced between a maximum of 71 months and a minimum of 57 months under the sentencing guidelines unless a mandatory minimum greater than 57 months (e.g., 60 months) is required. A sentence less than 60 months falls below the applicable mandatory minimum. The guidelines also permit sentences that fall above or below an applicable guidelines range, often called upward or downward departures, respectively, in certain circumstances. As illustrated in figure 3, a sentence of more than 71 months would depart upward from the applicable guideline range while a sentence of less than 57 months would depart downward, falling below the lower end of the guideline range. At the request of the prosecution, the judge may depart downward because the defendant has provided substantial assistance to the government—what USSC designates as substantial assistance departures. But the guidelines also provide that a judge may depart downward if the court finds certain mitigating circumstances exist that were not adequately taken into consideration by USSC in formulating the guidelines that should result in a sentence below the guideline range. To assist sentencing courts, the guidelines list both encouraged departure factors (such as coercion or duress, diminished capacity, or aberrant behavior of non- violent offenders) and discouraged though permissible departure factors (such as age, physical condition, family responsibilities, or prior good works). Judges may also consider other, unmentioned factors that were not adequately considered by the guidelines (such as extraordinary rehabilitation after the offense but prior to sentencing). USSC designates consideration of encouraged, discouraged, and unmentioned factors as “other departures.” Judges are required to explain the reasons for departing from the guidelines. The recently enacted PROTECT Act of 2003 makes clear that the reasons must be specific, written, and provided to USSC. USSC maintains a database that records a variety of data on the offenders and offenses for which sentences are imposed. Judges must comply with USSC’s data collection needs by furnishing a written report of the sentence, and the PROTECT Act makes clear that specific sentencing documents must accompany that report. Included in these data is information on whether the sentences imposed fell within or outside the applicable sentencing guidelines range as determined by the sentencing judge. Information on the incidence of sentencing outside of the guideline ranges is used by USSC to identify areas where the sentencing guidelines may need adjustment. Congress, under the PROTECT Act, directed USSC to review the grounds of downward departures that are authorized by its sentencing guidelines, policy statements, and official commentary, and to promulgate amendments to ensure that the incidence of downward departures is substantially reduced. The required amendments to the sentencing guidelines are due October 27, 2003. As previously noted, various drug offenses carry a mandatory minimum.For such offenses, the mandatory minimum precludes judges from sentencing at a lower guideline range minimum or from granting a downward departure that might otherwise be available, unless one of two statutory provisions applies. First, a judge may impose a sentence below the applicable mandatory minimum if the government (the federal prosecutor) files a motion with the court for such sentencing relief because of the defendant’s “substantial assistance” in the investigation or prosecution of another person. The discretion to make such a motion rests solely with the prosecutor. Second, in the absence of a substantial assistance motion, the “safety valve” provision affords relief from any otherwise applicable mandatory minimum sentence for drug offenders who have minimal criminal history (i.e., no more than 1 criminal history point); were not violent, armed, or high-level participants; and provided the government with truthful information regarding the offense. In these cases, the court is directed by statute to impose a sentence pursuant to the sentencing guidelines without regard to a mandatory minimum. As incorporated in USSC’s sentencing guidelines, both the substantial assistance and the safety valve provision may affect sentencing for offenders whose offense of conviction does not carry a mandatory minimum sentence—that is, whose sentences are solely governed by the application of the sentencing guidelines. For such offenders, a substantial assistance motion permits the judge to depart downward from the applicable guidelines range. With respect to the safety valve, the sentencing guidelines provide offenders who are convicted of certain drug offenses and who meet the legislative safety valve requirements a 2-level decrease to their base offense level, for example, from level 25 to level 23. The majority of federal sentences fell within an applicable guideline range, but when sentences departed downward, or fell below a guideline range, they did so about as often due to substantial assistance as to other reasons. Of the 162,090 federal sentences from fiscal years 1999-2001 for which complete sentencing information was available, most were within the guideline ranges determined by the court (64 percent), and about an equal proportion of sentences departed downward due to substantial assistance (18 percent) as for other reasons (17 percent). Similar to federal sentences overall, of the 69,279 drug sentences for which complete departure information was available, we found that most sentences were within guideline ranges (56 percent). Unlike federal sentences overall, from fiscal years 1999 to 2001, federal drug sentences departed downward more frequently due to substantial assistance (28 percent) than other reasons (16 percent), as shown in table 1. Other reasons that drug sentences departed downward included early disposition, that is, fast track, programs initiated by prosecutors; plea agreements; and judges’ consideration of mitigating circumstances. See appendix IV for more information on the frequency of reasons cited for other downward departures. Prosecutors’ substantial assistance motions resulted in downward departing sentences that were on average 49 percent of the average lowest sentence drug offenders otherwise would have received under the guidelines. Other downward departures resulted in sentences that were on average 57 percent of the average lowest sentence drug offenders otherwise would have received under the guidelines. See appendix I for more detailed information on sentence reductions. The percentage of drug sentences that departed downward due to prosecutors’ substantial assistance motions or for other reasons varied across judicial circuits in fiscal years 1999–2001, as shown in figure 4. The percentages of drug sentences departing downward differed notably across the 94 districts, even in some cases among districts within the same circuit. Figure 5 shows the 94 judicial districts grouped according to the percent of sentences imposed in districts that departed downward due to substantial assistance and for other reasons. In 55 districts, more than 30 percent of sentences departed downward due to substantial assistance, while in only 5 districts more than 30 percent of the sentences departed downward due to other reasons. However, these percentage differences do not take into account differences in offender and offense characteristics that may contribute to differences among circuits and districts. Of 41,861 federal drug sentences included in our analysis that carried a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment, more than half (52 percent) fell below an otherwise applicable mandatory minimum sentence. These sentences were split equally among those that fell below an otherwise applicable mandatory minimum sentence due to substantial assistance (26 percent) and those that fell below for other reasons, such as the safety valve (26 percent). (See fig. 6.) Nearly all of the mandatory minimum drug sentences carried either a 5-year (48 percent) mandatory minimum or a 10-year minimum (49 percent). On average, prosecutors’ substantial assistance motions reduced drug offenders’ 5-year mandatory minimum sentence by 33 months. Sentences lowered for other reasons, such as the safety valve, that would otherwise be subject to a 5-year mandatory minimum were reduced by an average of 26 months. On average, prosecutors’ substantial assistance motions reduced drug offenders’ 10-year mandatory minimum sentences by 63 months, and sentences lowered for other reasons that would otherwise be subject to a 10-year mandatory minimum were reduced by an average of 52 months. See appendix I for more detailed information on sentence reductions. Figure 7 provides a summary of the number and percent of federal drug sentences that fell below a mandatory minimum or guideline range compared with sentences that did not carry a mandatory minimum.