BenchRecon Data · Florida sentencing
Sarasota County: sentencing outcomes by charge
135,021 charge dispositions in Sarasota County, Florida, from public FDLE CJDT Clerk-of-Court data, 36.4% drew a recorded jail or prison sentence. The table below breaks the county's highest-volume charge categories into incarceration rate, median confinement, adjudication-withheld rate, and diversion rate.
“Incarceration” means a sentence to county jail or state prison; the rate is the share of charges with a recorded jail or prison sentence (a lower bound, since the source confinement field is blank on 56% of charges statewide). Dispositions span 1951-12-22 to 2026-06-20; not time-normalized.
Aggregate analysis, data as of 2026-06-21. Reproducible from public records. No individual is identified; the source data has no judge identifier, so no claim is made about any individual judge.
Sentencing outcomes by charge category
The highest-volume charge categories in Sarasota County. “Median confinement (when incarcerated)” is the typical maximum term among only the charges in that category that resulted in custody, so where the incarceration rate is low, that median describes a small subset of the category's charges, not a typical outcome for the category as a whole. It reads “—” where fewer than 10 charges in that category were incarcerated, or where the category's incarceration rate is too low for the median to be representative.
| Charge category | Charges | Incarceration | Confinement distribution (when incarcerated) | Adj. withheld | Diversion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driver Licenses | 30,229 | 14.4% | median 45 d · mean 154 d · mode 30 d · mid-50% 30 d–122 d | 21.1% | 15.6% |
| Drug Abuse Prevention and Control | 28,696 | 51.3% | median 183 d · mean 1.4 yr · mode 183 d · mid-50% 90 d–1.3 yr | 16.1% | 2.6% |
| State Uniform Traffic Control | 13,138 | 27.1% | median 80 d · mean 363 d · mode 30 d · mid-50% 20 d–274 d | 22.1% | 3.6% |
| Theft, Robbery, and Related Crimes | 13,015 | 49% | median 274 d · mean 2.8 yr · mode 364 d · mid-50% 61 d–2.0 yr | 13% | 6.5% |
| Burglary and Trespass | 8,434 | 50.7% | median 274 d · mean 3.2 yr · mode 364 d · mid-50% 30 d–2.9 yr | 7.9% | 1.7% |
| Assault; Battery; Culpable Negligence | 6,940 | 43.7% | median 304 d · mean 1.8 yr · mode 364 d · mid-50% 122 d–1.9 yr | 17.6% | 6.9% |
| Obstructing Justice | 5,677 | 31.1% | median 61 d · mean 212 d · mode 30 d · mid-50% 30 d–183 d | 12.9% | 3.6% |
| Motor Vehicle Licenses | 4,368 | 5.2% | median 30 d · mean 39 d · mode 30 d · mid-50% 17 d–60 d | 29.6% | 12.2% |
| Abuse of Children | 3,505 | 54.8% | median 15.0 yr · mean 25.7 yr · mode 15.0 yr · mid-50% 5.0 yr–44.4 yr | 3.2% | 0.3% |
| Fraudulent Practices | 2,328 | 59.5% | median 1.3 yr · mean 2.3 yr · mode 5.0 yr · mid-50% 183 d–3.0 yr | 14.7% | 2.2% |
| Arson and Criminal Mischief | 1,679 | 30.8% | median 183 d · mean 1.3 yr · mode 364 d · mid-50% 60 d–364 d | 15.7% | 6.8% |
| Marriage; Domestic Violence | 1,616 | 41.1% | median 244 d · mean 246 d · mode 364 d · mid-50% 91 d–364 d | 7.5% | 1.2% |
Methodology & limitations
- Source: public Florida FDLE Criminal Justice Data Transparency (CJDT) Clerk-of-Court case data, grouped by county and FDLE statute-chapter grouping. Snapshot: 2026-06-21. Every figure is reproducible from a published script against the source data.
- “Incarceration” defined: a charge counts as incarceration only when its sentence is a sentence to county jail or state prison. The rate is the share of charges with a recorded jail or prison sentence, a lower bound, because the source confinement field is blank on 56% of charges statewide and counties populate it inconsistently. Cross-county comparison is therefore confounded by reporting completeness.
- Confinement distribution: the median, mean, mode, and middle-50% range (25th–75th percentile) of the maximum confinement term, in days, among charges that resulted in a jail or prison sentence. The spread is shown because a single median is easily skewed; the distribution is what makes a comparable defensible. Reported only where at least 10 such charges exist; charge categories with fewer than 10 charges overall are omitted.
- No judge dimension: the source data contains no judge identifier. Nothing here describes how any individual judge sentences.
- What the data does NOT show: these figures describe recorded dispositions and do not control for criminal history, offense severity within a chapter, plea posture, or case facts. A category rate is a baseline, not a prediction for any specific case. This page reports aggregates only and identifies no individual.
Comparables for a specific Sarasota County charge
BenchRecon's Sentencing Comparables return the outcome distribution for a specific charge in a specific Florida county, with every figure cited to the underlying public record.