A Short Rocket – Update for January 29, 2026

We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

Today, some short takes from last week…

ICYMI…

Money, That’s What I Want – Bipartisan bills have been introduced in the Senate and House (S.3626 and H.R.7033) to address what sponsors called “historic and persistent staffing shortages at federal prisons” by providing a 35% salary increase to Bureau of Prisons correctional staff nationwide.

Sponsors are Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and David McCormick (R-PA) in the Senate and Reps Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) in the House.

S.3626, A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to improve recruitment and retention of Federal correctional officers (January 13, 2026)

H.R.7033 – Federal Correctional Officer Paycheck Protection Act of 2026 (January 13, 2026)

FedWeek, Bills Proposed to Boost Bureau of Prisons Pay by 35% (January 20, 2026)

The Plot Thickens – Last week, I reported on a handful of clemencies issued to some fraudsters, some people with long-forgotten offenses, and a few drug defendants. One was a commutation granted to James Womack, whose 96-month meth distribution sentence was cut short after only a couple of years.

When I wrote the piece last week, Jim’s commutation didn’t seem to me to fit the “clemency for the rich and famous” theme coming from White House in the last year. But it turns out it does. Jimmy’s dad is Rep Steve Womack (R-AR), “a long-time Trump ally who was endorsed by the president during his most recent re-election campaign,” according to Daily Beast.

To make matters more complex, the White House said the commutation was in part due to Jim’s mother’s cancer diagnosis. Jim was released on Jan 15. His mother died three days later. While the circumstances are sad, federal prisoners losing parents, siblings and children while being imprisoned is all too common, while furloughs for final goodbyes and funerals – let alone commutations because of the loss – as rare as hen’s teeth.

Daily Beast, Trump Frees MAGA Rep’s Meth Dealer Son in Pardon Spree (January 17, 2026)

KATV, Terri Womack, wife of Arkansas Congressman Steve Womack, dies at 68 (January 20, 2026)

Justice Jackson Dissents IFP Denials – Last week, the Supreme Court denied Danny Howell, an Indiana state prisoner, leave to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP), holding that because “the petitioner has repeatedly abused this Court’s process,” he could not file any more petitions unless he prepaid the $300 filing fee. The decision is one of hundreds following the Court’s 1992 decision permitting such bans in Martin v DC Court of Appeals.

Martin was an abusive filer, submitting 54 IFP filings in 10 years. But Martin dissenters feared that what started as a rare step would turn out to be “merely the prelude” to a more habitual shutting of the courthouse doors.

Pointing out that Danny Howell had only filed six petitions over 14 years, Justice Jackson last week wrote that “[b]y my count, the Court has now invoked Martin hundreds of times to prospectively bar indigent litigants from filing in forma pauperis. We no longer wait for a petitioner to inundate the Court with frivolous filings. Instead, we reflexively ‘Martinize’ petitioners after only a few petitions… In my view, such a restriction foolishly trades a pound of values for an ounce of convenience… the Court now blocks indigent incarcerated individuals from ever more accessing our courthouse, just to avoid a minor administrative burden.”

Indiana ex rel. Howell v. Circuit Court, Case No 25-5557, 2026 U.S. LEXIS 495 (Jan 20, 2026)

Martin v. District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 506 U.S. 1 (1992) (per curiam).

~ Thomas L. Root