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Press Release

Number of Federal Defendants Charged and Imprisoned Rises in 2017

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Alabama

BIRMINGHAM – The number of people charged with federal crimes in the Northern District of Alabama in 2017 and the percentage of those defendants sentenced to prison was the highest since 2011, announced U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town.

“Charging more defendants, putting more criminals behind bars, and preventing future criminal activity makes the Northern District a safer place for our families,” Town said. “I am very proud that my office has successfully prosecuted the priorities of the Department of Justice and we will continue to do so. In addition to our impressive prosecutorial and litigation numbers, we continue to install and manage comprehensive violence reduction and crime prevention initiatives across the Northern District, such as Project Safe Neighborhoods and the Public Safety Partnership, which will continue to make our communities more secure, our partnerships more robust, and our law enforcement agencies more impactful.”

The priorities of the Department of Justice to reduce illegal gun crimes, reduce violent crime, pursue criminal immigration matters, and to aggressively address the opioid epidemic in Alabama were all successfully executed by the Northern District in 2017. The U.S. Attorney’s Office showed vast improvement in all categories in 2017 over the previous fiscal year.

The data provided by the Department of Justice indicates that the Northern District’s conviction rate of 94.4 percent is the highest since at least 2004. Defendants charged totaled 540 for Fiscal Year 2017, up 32.4 percent from the 408 defendants charged in FY 2016. The number of defendants sentenced to prison in 2017 rose 15 percent, from 283 in 2016 to 325 in 2017.

The 239 defendants charged with violent crimes in 2017 was a 39.8 percent increase over the 171 charged with violent crimes in 2016. The 33 defendants charged with opioid-related crimes in 2017 represented a 65 percent increase over the 20 defendants charged with opioid crimes in 2016.

Illegal firearms prosecutions rose 36 percent in FY 2017 to 225 from 165 in FY 2016. Illegal firearms prosecutions are 57.9 percent higher than the average of the previous four fiscal years.

In FY 2017, the prosecution of criminal immigration cases saw a 212.5 percent increase in the number of defendants, rising from 16 in FY 2016 to 50, which is the highest number of defendants charged with criminal immigration violations since at least 2004.

Our Civil Division achieved favorable judgments in nearly every category of litigation. Our Appellate Division won 95.4% of all civil and criminal appeals.

See attachment for a full explanation of FY2017.

Updated January 10, 2018

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