The latest available data from the federal courts show that during July 2016 the government reported 1,432 new federal prisoner petitions to vacate their sentences were filed. This is the fourth month in a row that civil filings for these matters have been above a thousand. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, July's total was only topped by May and June of this year. In May 2016 there were a total of 2,767 prisoner sentence petitions, while in June there were a whopping 13,254.

Over the previous 5 years the number of such petitions filed each month averaged less than 600, and generally ranged between 450 and 700 each month based upon a comparisons of case-by-case court records going back to October 2007 that were compiled and analyzed by TRAC (see Table 1). Thus, the numbers seen so far this year are clearly unprecedented.

The annual trend for these matters going back through FY 2008 is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of motions filed to vacate sentence of this type recorded in the U.S. district courts each fiscal year. On an annual basis, when fiscal year 2016 civil filings of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, their number was up 391 percent. Similarly they were up 332 percent from levels of five years ago.

Comparisons based on the most recent six month period show an even higher jump. The average for the past six months was up 690 percent over the level one-year ago, and up 567 percent over five years ago. See Table 1.

Top and Bottom Ranked Judicial Districts

The Southern District of Florida (Miami) had the largest number of prisoner sentence petitions filed so far this past fiscal year with 1,259 in that one district alone. Relative to its population size, its per capita rank was sixth in the nation.

This compares to the District of Columbia which ranked first relative to its population size, but fell to 56th place in number of its suits. Relative to its population, the Northern District of Iowa (Cedar Rapids) was ranked second highest in the country. Both D.C. and Northern Iowa had rates of prisoner sentence filings that were, respectively, 3.0 and 2.7 times the national average.

The Eastern District of North Carolina (Raleigh) ranked third, relative to its population size in the number of prisoner sentence suits filed so far during FY 2016. In sheer numbers of suits filed it had 707. This also placed it fourth in the country based strictly on the volume of suits filed.

Relative to its population with a rate that was only one-fifth of the national average, the Central District of California (Los Angeles) ranked in last place. The Western District of Washington (Seattle) ranked next to last on its rate of prisoner sentence petitions.

For a complete listing of the number of prisoner sentence petitions filed so far this fiscal year in each of the 90 federal judicial districts, along with their rankings, see Table 2.

Table 2. Number and Per Capita Prisoner Petitions to Vacate Sentences by Federal Judicial District,
FY 2014 - FY 2016*
(click title to open in a new window)

	Number			Per Capita Rate (per million)			2016 Rankings
Judicial District	FY 2014	FY 2015	FY 2016*	FY 2014	FY 2015	FY 2016*	Number	Rate
D. C.	23	20	142	34.9	29.8	211.2	56	1
Iowa, N	70	42	247	52.8	31.6	185.9	30	2
N Car, E	191	150	707	48.8	38.0	179.0	4	3
Tenn, E	154	108	459	59.8	41.7	177.4	13	4
N Car, M	162	165	518	55.8	56.3	176.8	11	5
Fla, S	392	275	1,259	54.9	38.0	173.9	1	6
Tenn, W	108	74	254	68.5	47.0	161.3	29	7
N Dakota	25	35	117	33.8	46.2	154.6	63	8
Iowa, S	78	50	257	43.8	27.8	143.1	27	9
Virg, W	103	75	312	47.2	34.3	142.6	21	10
Penn, E	188	131	823	32.2	22.4	140.6	2	11
N Car, W	160	90	439	51.2	28.4	138.7	14	12
S Car	226	132	672	46.8	27.0	137.3	8	13
W Virg, S	29	23	122	31.6	25.2	133.7	60	14
Mo, W	95	83	415	30.3	26.4	131.9	15	15
W Virg, N	39	37	122	42.0	39.7	131.0	60	16
Wyoming	21	13	74	35.9	22.2	126.3	79	17
Mo, E	98	81	345	33.4	27.6	117.5	20	18
Ga, S	83	94	183	53.4	60.0	116.9	45	19
Maryland	229	137	694	38.3	22.8	115.5	5	20
N Mexico	39	38	233	18.7	18.2	111.7	36	21
Ala, S	44	29	93	52.4	34.4	110.3	71	22
Ill, S	63	58	138	49.5	45.7	108.8	58	23
Montana	50	35	110	48.9	33.9	106.5	65	24
Ga, M	41	52	208	20.4	25.9	103.5	39	25
Fla, N	103	66	189	57.0	36.2	103.5	42	25
Virg, E	189	121	625	30.8	19.5	100.9	10	27
R. I.	19	14	104	18.0	13.3	98.5	68	28
Texas, N	221	165	693	31.3	23.1	96.8	6	29
Texas, W	259	205	667	37.8	29.4	95.6	9	30
N. Y., S	165	127	479	31.6	24.2	91.2	12	31
Ark, E	29	25	148	17.7	15.2	90.2	53	32
Kansas	87	48	255	30.0	16.5	87.6	28	33
Nevada	54	31	245	19.0	10.7	84.8	31	34
Ala, M	34	30	97	29.6	26.0	84.1	70	35
Penn, M	52	44	263	16.4	13.8	82.7	25	36
Tenn, M	44	25	193	18.4	10.3	79.2	41	37
Nebraska	46	20	140	24.4	10.5	73.8	57	38
Ind, N	43	42	187	16.6	16.2	72.3	44	39
Texas, S	307	240	684	33.0	25.3	72.2	7	40
La, E	39	27	118	23.5	16.1	70.5	62	41
Mich, W	58	56	245	16.7	16.1	70.4	31	42
Okla, W	27	26	147	12.9	12.3	69.8	54	43
Utah	22	13	208	7.5	4.3	69.4	39	44
Ind, S	94	73	278	23.4	18.1	68.9	24	45
Ill, C	55	50	152	24.5	22.4	68.0	50	46
S Dakota	19	19	57	22.6	22.5	67.5	84	47
Maine	17	22	89	12.8	16.5	67.0	72	48
Ken, E	58	53	147	26.5	24.1	66.9	54	49
Okla, N	28	30	70	26.7	28.4	66.2	80	50
Fla, M	341	212	719	31.1	18.9	64.2	3	51
Penn, W	108	47	242	28.6	12.5	64.2	33	51
Hawaii	10	16	89	7.0	11.2	62.2	72	53
Texas, E	104	95	237	27.5	24.6	61.5	35	54
Ohio, N	77	79	350	13.4	13.8	60.9	17	55
Ark, W	33	24	80	24.9	17.9	59.8	77	56
Vermont	21	10	36	33.5	16.0	57.5	90	57
Miss, S	47	25	105	25.1	13.3	56.0	67	58
Alaska	14	12	40	19.6	16.8	55.8	87	59
Ala, N	68	33	159	23.8	11.5	55.5	49	60
Miss, N	18	14	61	16.1	12.5	54.5	83	61
Cal, S	99	46	189	28.7	13.2	54.3	42	62
Oregon	36	37	217	9.1	9.2	53.9	38	63
Okla, E	8	9	40	10.7	12.0	53.5	87	64
Ga, N	89	80	354	13.6	12.0	53.3	16	65
Wash, E	29	15	82	18.7	9.6	52.4	75	66
Arizona	207	132	347	30.8	19.3	50.8	19	67
New Hamp	9	9	66	6.8	6.8	49.6	81	68
Mich, E	80	87	288	12.4	13.5	44.7	22	69
La, M	18	14	37	21.8	16.9	44.6	89	70
Delaware	9	6	42	9.6	6.3	44.4	86	71
La, W	44	23	89	20.3	10.6	41.1	72	72
N. Y., W	39	34	115	13.8	12.1	40.9	64	73
Conn	45	28	137	12.5	7.8	38.2	59	74
Ill, N	130	106	350	13.9	11.3	37.4	17	75
Ken, W	39	23	82	17.5	10.3	36.8	75	76
Mass	53	44	229	7.8	6.5	33.7	37	77
Wisc, E	37	40	110	10.9	11.8	32.3	65	78
Colorado	39	37	173	7.3	6.8	31.7	47	79
N. Y., E	77	60	261	9.3	7.2	31.4	26	80
Ohio, S	52	41	178	8.9	7.0	30.3	46	81
Minnesota	51	40	151	9.3	7.3	27.5	51	82
Idaho	14	13	45	8.6	7.9	27.2	85	83
N. J.	104	105	240	11.6	11.7	26.8	34	84
Wisc, W	24	15	62	10.2	6.3	26.2	82	85
N. Y., N	45	26	78	13.1	7.6	22.8	78	86
Cal, N	37	33	167	4.5	4.0	20.1	48	87
Cal, E	53	33	151	6.7	4.1	19.0	51	88
Wash, W	55	29	100	10.0	5.2	17.8	69	89
Cal, C	133	106	281	6.9	5.5	14.5	23	90

* FY 2016 only includes filings for the first ten months.

Each month, TRAC offers a free report focused on one area of civil litigation in the U.S. district courts. In addition, subscribers to the TRACFed data service can generate custom reports by district, office, nature of suit or federal jurisdiction via the TRAC Data Interpreter.

Federal Prisoner Petitions to Vacate Sentences Soar in 2016

Top and Bottom Ranked Judicial Districts