U.S. to buy Illinois prison even if it won’t hold terror suspects, official says

The Obama administration plans to purchase a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill., regardless of whether Congress allows terrorism suspects to be transferred there, a Justice Department official said Thursday.

In a letter to a member of the Illinois congressional delegation, Assistant Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich spelled out the administration’s intent to go ahead with plans to buy the nearly empty Thomson prison, even if lawmakers refuse to approve its use as a new home for detainees at the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

At the least, Weich said, the federal Bureau of Prisons intends to use the facility for high-security inmates. The letter comes in response to questions from Rep. Donald Manzullo, the Republican who represents the area in Congress.

The Department of Justice has asked for $237 million in next year’s budget to buy and begin operating the Thomson prison. It has the option of requesting funds sooner to upgrade security and prepare the prison for federal use.

President Obama has directed the department to buy the site “to fulfill both of the goals of reducing federal prison overcrowding and transferring a limited number of detainees out of Guantanamo,” Weich wrote in the letter. The Thomson prison is crucial to Obama’s plan to shut down the Guantanamo prison, which administration officials consider a recruiting tool for anti-American extremists worldwide.

But the department “would be seeking to purchase the facility in Thomson even if detainees were not being considered for transfer there,” Weich’s letter says.

Such an assurance could ease some lawmakers’ objections to the purchase. Some members of Congress are worried about the potential political and security fallout of moving terrorism suspects to a domestic site. Unless Congress changes current law, however, Guantanamo inmates couldn’t be transferred to the U.S. for any purpose other than trial.

But the prospect of a downsized plan could concern local and state officials, who are eager for the jobs that would come with expanded use of the facility.

The Justice Department’s operation would involve a third of the prison’s space, although the number of Guantanamo detainees who might be moved there is uncertain. White House officials say only that they would keep the number of Guantanamo transfers “in the range of” 100.

The Bureau of Prisons would use most of the prison and require 895 staff members, according to a letter sent Thursday from the Department of Justice to U.S. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). The number is of great interest to local officials, who had hoped the state prison would bring jobs to the area. Because of budget constraints, however, the state has never been able to bring the prison into full operation.

Durbin is an avid supporter of the Thomson project.

Manzullo has voiced support for opening the center as a federal prison because it would provide jobs for the area, but he has said he has “serious reservations” about moving Guantanamo detainees there.

cparsons@latimes.com