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Illinois prison offiicals move ahead with prison sale process

By Amanda Vinicky, Illinois Public Radio

Springfield, Ill. – The federal government has yet to decide if it will buy a mostly vacant northwestern Illinois prison to hold terrorist suspects from Guantanamo Bay, but state corrections officials are already moving forward with the process to sell the Thomson Correctional Center.

They must go through the same procedure for closing any other state facility, and that began last week when corrections director Michael Randle sent in his official recommendation to close Thomson.

Now, a bipartisan legislative commission will hold a public hearing on December 22. Commission chairman Dan Long said there's much to be discussed.

"The Thomson prison wasn't built for no reason," Long said. "I mean it was built because the current, the maximum, prisons are at capacity; they're over capacity."

Supporters say a federal takeover of Thomson would create needed jobs in northwestern Illinois, but critics say bringing Guantanamo detainees to the state would increase the risk of a terrorist attack.

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