Up to 100 detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detainment center in Cuba will be moved to a prison in Thomson, Illinois—a small township with 708 residents. The prison will become “the most secure prison in America,” said Illinois Governor Pat Quinn during a short press conference in front of the White House on Tuesday.
The prison will operate similarly to Guantanamo Bay. All trials will be held onsite in military tribunals, and “any detainees that are going to be incarcerated in this prison will only be able to speak to their lawyers,” said Quinn, who was joined by Senator Richard Durban (D-IL) and National Security Adviser James Jones.
The Thomson Correctional Center, which has been vacant for the past eight years, will be sold to the federal government and then upgraded into a more secure prison.
Funding is still being negotiated, according to Durban. The prison cost $145 million to build in 2001, and an advisory commission will decide the amount they will request in payment from the federal government.
Durban said the prison will have more than 3,000 employees, half of whom will be from the local area. He added that of the detainees, “we estimate there will be fewer than 100 who will be transferred out of Guantanamo.”
According to Jones, “We think that by taking this action, Guantanamo will soon be closed.” He also said that “in taking this action, we are removing from terrorist organizations around the world a recruiting tool Guantanamo has come to symbolize.”
Local Support
The local community has largely welcomed the idea of the detainees being transferred to the nearby prison—mostly out of anticipation it will bring extra jobs and money to the local economy.
“Most people I talk to are all for it,” said Todd Baker, 43, in a phone interview. “It will bring jobs and money to the economy here.”
Baker has lived in the town for three years and owns Todds Bait & Tackle, a fishing supply shop, with his father. He said that out of an estimated 200 people he has spoken with, only two or three are not supportive of the facility—due to fear of the detainees.
“I think it will help the town a lot,” said Baker. “It will help me out a lot with my fishing and tackle business.”
“People are more in favor of it than you would first image,” said Jay Dickerson, editor of Galena, Illinois newspaper Galena Gazette.
“Mainly people are focused on the economic opportunities that opening the prison will bring,” said Dickerson in a phone interview, adding “I think we will see a lot of people moving into the town.”
One local business owner asked to not be named in fear it would stop “the people who don’t go for it” from supporting her business. She said tours of the prison are being offered to locals to reinsure them that the facility is secure. “We’ve toured several times,” she said, adding that it “seems very secure and safe.”
Closing Guantanamo
The new facility to hold Guantanamo Bay detainees follows President Barack Obama’s Jan. 22, 2009, order to close the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where 210 people are still being held.
“As the president has made clear, we will need to continue to detain some individuals currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” states a Dec. 15 letter to Illinois Governor Quinn from several officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
The letter states that the new facility in Illinois will serve two purposes: One will be to house federal inmates, and the other will be to “house a limited number” of Guantanamo detainees. “The two parts of the facility will be managed separately, and federal inmates will have no opportunity to interact with Guantanamo detainees,” states the letter.
“The security of the facility and the surrounding region is our paramount concern,” says the letter. It states that although the facility was built in 2001 as a maximum security prison, “it will be enhanced to exceed perimeter security standards at the nation’s only ’supermax' prison in Florence, Colorado, where there has never been an escape or external attack.”
The letter also states that Obama “has no intention of releasing any detainees in the United States,” and current laws prevent Guantanamo detainees from being released into the U.S.
