Presents national-level statistics describing all aspects of processing in the Federal criminal justice system, including investigations by U.S. attorneys, prosecutions and declinations, pretrial release and detention, convictions and acquittals, sentencing, appeals, and corrections for 1998. Statistics for arrests are included for the first time.

• The number of defendants prosecuted in federal courts rose 12.7 percent--from 69,351 in 1997 to 78,172 in 1998, principally because of increases in drug law prosecutions (38 percent of the increase) and immigration law violations (29 percent of the increase). Most (83 percent) were charged with felony offenses.
• Eighty-seven percent of those charged were convicted. Of those convicted, 94 percent pleaded guilty.
• Seventy-one percent of those convicted were sentenced to prison, up from 60 percent of those convicted in 1990.