It is not unusual for possessors and receivers of CP to be placed on probation as the result of a state court conviction. Here Professor Berman reports:
Regular readers are familiar with persistent complaints about the severity of the federal child porn guidelines and the frequency with which federal judges impose below-guideline sentences in cases involving "mere" downloading of illegal images. But it still seems rare for a federal child porn offender, especially one who possessed a lot of illegal images, gets a federal sentence of probation. This local New Jersey story, however, seems to report on such a sentence: