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* 2:54 pm - The legislative Commission on Governmental Forecasting and Accountability just voted 7-4 to approve the closure of the almost empty Thomson state prison so it can be sold to the federal government. Sen. Dave Syverson and Rep. Rich Myers were the only two Republicans to vote for the plan. Syverson has touted the economic impact of the federal project.

The vote is nonbinding, but had some symbolic importance since it’s become such an intense state and national political football. Gov. Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin have already issued a press release praising CoGFA for its bipartisan vote…

“We are pleased the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has endorsed the sale of the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government and rejected the partisan rhetoric.

Elected officials, community and business leaders and the residents of Northwest Illinois are wholeheartedly supporting this proposal because they understand that this is an opportunity to create up to 3,800 jobs and generate more than $1 billion in a region that desperately needs both.

Fully utilizing Thomson and upgrading this facility to make it the safest prison in the nation will not jeopardize the safety and security of our country or our state; we would never endorse a plan that would do so. Despite the fear-mongering and nay-saying of a vocal few, we stand with state, county and local law enforcement officers and state’s attorneys from across the area, and with our nation’s military commanders, who know that this is about making our country safer by removing the deadly recruiting tool that Guantanamo has become.

This should not be a political or partisan issue. This is about doing what’s right for our troops, for our national security and for the people of Illinois. We will continue doing everything we can to make this sale a reality and bring the jobs and other economic benefits to our state.”

Here’s the rollcall, with Republicans in red and Democrats in blue…

Bellock No
Brady No
Frerichs Yes
McCarthy Absent
Murphy No
Myers Y
Nekritz Y
Poe N
Riley Y
Schoenburg Y
Syverson Y
Trotter Y

* 3:17 pm - From AFSCME…

AFSCME believes Thomson should be used for its intended purpose: to relieve dangerous overcrowding in the state’s maximum-security prisons. It’s very disappointing COGFA did not agree with our view. The panel did, however, approve language urging the governor to consider “prisoner overcrowding and the impact on staff” in the prison system going forward.

* 4:06 pm - Sen. Kirk Dillard…

“Today’s vote is unfortunate. Terror suspects should stay at Guantanamo. Importing jobs should not equate to importing terrorists. The working families of Illinois deserve better solutions for our economic problems than this. Pat Quinn’s decision once again demonstrates the pitiful jobs climate in Illinois and his lack of urgency to attract and create private sector jobs.

“As governor, my highest priority will be balancing our budget and restoring confidence in state government so that we can make Illinois an employer-friendly state.”

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 2:56 pm

Comments

The most interesting thing about the vote is this.

Here is what we don’t know about the sale yet:

1) Sale Price
2) How many detainees we are getting
3) What they’re going to do to Thomson to make it ready
4) How these detainees will be tried

Here is what we do know for certain:

-

Shouldn’t this vote take place AFTER some details are locked down… like the fraking sale price?

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 2:58 pm
So they are releasing terrorists early too?

Comment by Cubs2010 Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:04 pm
John, this vote is only on the closure, not the sale.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:06 pm
I would like to know how Thomson prison will be different enough from Gitmo that it can’t be used as a recruitment tool as Gitmos allegedly has. In addition, I wonder how the civil rights activists will view Thomson. Will they call a halt to their campaign and hail Thomson as a model of penal correctness? Yeah, that’ll happen.

A monumental waste of taxpayers money. We have a perfectally good secure facility at Gitmo with the military tribunal already built and we have to re-create this in Illinois? That is the most pressing thing we have to deal with right now?

The dumbest idea since the (re)election of RodB.

Comment by dupage dan Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:06 pm
“We are pleased the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has endorsed the sale of the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government and rejected the partisan rhetoric that ironically we used to get Barack Obama elected and forced us to cobble together this lousy Gitmo replacement plan.”

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:13 pm
===That is the most pressing thing we have to deal with right now?===

Who said that?

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:16 pm
A couple of GOP votes certainly provides some cover.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:18 pm
That prison should never have been built in the first place. Go ahead and give it away. What happened to all of that building material that was sitting around there for years? Do the feds get all of that too?

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:22 pm
A couple of GOP votes certainly provides some cover.

Yes, but lets not forget how disingenuous it is for leaders who undermined the bipartisanship that created Gitmo in 2005, to now reclaim it after it was their partisan attacks that made it an issue, forcing us to now have these terrorists in Illinois.

Their “fix” fixes nothing. The partisan box they forced opened for their 2008 electoral triumphs is now open for every partisan hack to use.

These people only like bipartisanship when it favors them. They have demonstrated a willingness to throw it under the bus the moment they perceive a political edge, regardless of the costs.

Next, they’ll claim they will be open and transparent!

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:36 pm
Can prisoners or prison personnel file a class action law suite against the governor/state for confining them to unsafe and overcrowded conditions?

Recently Tom Dart announced his is hiring 500 more jail guards by federal mandate, because Cook County Jail was deemed unsafe as a result of not having enough guards.

We just had a hostage situation at Pickneyville and Menard was recently put on lockdown. What on earth are the lawmakers who voted in favor of closing Thomson thinking?

AFSCME or somebody should seriously considering filing a suit over the overcrowded and unsafe conditions in which prison personnel are forced to work, and inmates forced to live.

Syverson and Myers can…

Comment by Will County Woman Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:47 pm
P.S.

I’m so in favor of prison inmates filing the suit, as I believe many are in prison for good reason, but because Illinois has such a dubious distinction for wrongful convictions, I would not be opposed to inmates or someone on their behalf filing a law suit.

Comment by Will County Woman Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:50 pm
WCW and should that lawsuit also order a tax increase to pay for more guards and prisons? You want the court system to increase our problems by mandating increased spending of money by the State?

besides, there is no more overcrowding, we are just letting everyone with crimes equal to or less then murder go. Everyone else has to stay.

Comment by Ghost Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 3:53 pm
Yeah well, I’d rather keep the criminals in prison than give them good behavior for just showing up at the prison gates and then releasing them after serving a few days in processing hold.

If Quinn had pitched his tax increase proposal properly to the public in the first place instead of going all off message and RFK on an anti-poverty campaign, it would have helped him tremendously.

A criminal beats a woman on a Chicago street to within inches of her life, she lives but sustains serious physical and psychological problems, and he’s let out of prison early just to save a few pennies. Then upon his early release he goes out and immediately terrorizes people again and brags about the nearly beating a woman to death.

Comment by Will County Woman Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 4:17 pm
ooops.
my p.s. should have read

I am NOT in favor prison inmates filing law suits….

Comment by Will County Woman Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 4:49 pm
I don’t see why we don’t just hire more guards. And, I don’t see why we aren’t paying community providers and Medicaid providers. This is just all silly made up stuff to scare us into thinking we should have a tax increase. We just need to cut our spending, especially on waste.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 4:57 pm
Steve - regrettably, most people aren’t good at irony. And many who have this particular weakness are running for office.

Comment by Reality Check Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 5:02 pm
Bill:

The prison was badly needed if the state had money. And, I believe you may be thinking of Grayville for the spare materials.

Comment by RJW Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 5:12 pm
But Steve, not too long ago Quinn proposed cutting prison guards—up to 1000 of them, and he was serious in thinking that cutting guards was a good idea.

He also wanted to close Stateville.

Unbelievable.

Comment by Will County Woman Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 5:15 pm
Congratulations to Senator Mike Jacobs for fullfilling his pledge to open Thomson Prision!

Comment by T.PeterSimmons Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 5:17 pm
WCW:

If you are going to cut people you have to cut them where they are. DoC and DHS are the two biggest state employers. Of course DoC is going to be on the hitlist for layoffs.

Comment by RJW Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 5:19 pm
Part of the Obama administration’s close Gitmo plan was to release a significant number of Yemeni detainees back to Yemen. After the events of Xmas Day they still say they are planning to do this but the prez also suspended returns to Yemen for the time being. And, of course, Congress would have to approve returning the remainder to the US.

I suspect we won’t see any movement on this issue before the end of 2010 and maybe not until after the next presidential election.

This was an exercise in political public relations, nothing more. Our legislators are always good for a little posturing. It’s one thing we can count on.

Comment by cassandra Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 6:39 pm
Cassandra, I think for the time being means until we’re done with the upcoming military strikes in Yemen. That’s why we and the Brits emptied our embassies.

Of course, we have to find something worth bombing.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 6:42 pm
Schnorf, it’s like this. The clowns in Springfield spent more money then they had. They knew they did it, they did it anyway. The last few years, they didn’t even bother with budget games to make the case it was constitutional. Then they decided to blow their wad on a $31 B capital bill, mostly of pork, while WE CAN’T PAY OUR STINKING BILLS.

And YOU WANT MORE OF OUR MONEY?!?!?!?!

The same clowns who screwed it up in the first place are going to spend “the new money”…

Maybe, just maybe, the voters are tired of these morons who can’t do addition and subtraction and just don’t want to throw more money that they can’t spare at a problem SPRINGFIELD created.

The problem isn’t the greedy taxpayers who can barely make ends meet.

Comment by John Bambenek Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 8:55 pm
RJW,

I’m glad that the poor prison librarian who was taken hostage by an inmate a couple of weeks ago wasn’t killed. It makes me sad to think that it will take the death of some prison personnel for something comprehensive be done by the GA to overhaul and address our state prison problems. Our prisons are powder kegs just waiting to explode—it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. But, with politicians that’s usually what gets their attention: someone dies.

I cannot imagine what prison personnel go through on a daily basis. Sure, they knew the risks when they applied for and accepted the job, but when they applied and accepted the prisons were probably adaquately staffed, which miminized the saftey risks.

Re: DHS the only people who should be helped are children, the disabled and the elderly. If democrats were not so keen on creating policies that undermine personal responsiblity and encourage idleness, DHS wouldn’t be so huge and burdensome to taxpayers.

Comment by Will County Woman Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 11:24 pm
JB, I am studying up to either run for office or be an editorial writer. My primary learning efforts involve reading and re-reading Lewis Carroll. I can already believe several unbelievable things before breakfast. I am working on making words mean what I want.

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Jan 6, 10 @ 11:51 pm
Wouldn’t it be fascinating if there was something we could do to reduce the prison population and incarceration costs and that would also bring additional tax revenue? Maybe there’s an example from our American history we could learn from. They did end alcohol prohibition at the start of the depression. Portugal stopped locking up non-violent “drug offenders” a few years ago with results we should pay attention to.

And why in the world would they let out violent criminals early when there are plenty of non-violent victimless drug offenders many female that would make more sense to release first?

On topic, I’d be interested in hearing more about the history of this Thomson prison and the individuals involved in what became a giant waste of much needed resources. They spent all that money on a prison because the others are overcrowded and then let it sit there empty. Somebody should write a book about it after they start housing terrorists there.

Comment by TaxMeMore Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 3:04 am
Who really thinks Congress is going to approve the closure of Gitmo after the Christmas terror incident - in an election year, no less? IL state gov should worry more about rolling back of the taxes and fees that have ran business and jobs out of our state - if they are really concerned about UE.

Comment by anon Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 9:08 am
so this prison is not being fully used cause the past 2 adminisstrations have been totally incompetent? right on about the incompetent part. illinois taxpayers paid for this prison, right?
so now IL taxpayers get to pay for it again with our federal taxes! why is this not illegal?
why would any taxpayer think this is a good deal?
the totally incompetent and immoral politicians must be held accountable. we can stop this stupidity.

Comment by garcia Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 9:48 am
Ben Nelson sold his vote for health care in the US Senate. What did Syverson and Myers get in exchange for their votes?

Comment by Bob S Thursday, Jan 7, 10 @ 5:22 pm