County Board Says 'Yes' To Federal Prison

Tom Kocal

MT. CARROLL ­ Citing job creation and stimulating economic growth, a County Resolution in support of the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons purchasing the Thomson Correctional Center from the State of Illinois was approved at the November 19 Carroll County Board meeting.

Chairman Rod Fritz (D-3) said "the meat" of the resolution is that County Board "supports the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP) purchasing the Thomson Correctional Center to operate a federal prison."

Before the vote, Joyce Schubert (D-3) said she would support it if not for the Gitmo prisoners potentially housed there. County Administrator Michael Doty stressed that the resolution "is crafted to say that it is not supporting anything other than the federal BoP purchasing that. We aren't giving an opinion on the Guantanimo Bay prisoners coming or going. That could change from administration to administration. But a federal prison could stay for a period of time."

"But it's not saying that we support the Gitmo prisoners being there either," Fritz added.

"We'll leave that for the national debate," said Doty.

Fritz said the prison would be purchased by the BoP, with a portion of the facility leased to the Dept. of Defense (DoD). "Personally, for us, that's good. It doubles the bureaucracy, which adds more jobs, because of the military presence and the prison workers and management jobs."

Sheriff Jeff Doran also spoke in favor of the transition from state to federal facility. He said he and other County police chiefs, also in favor of the move, attended a meeting conducted by the BoP and DoD. "It's good for us, because anything that happens in there is a federal issue. There may be some civil processes, such as a prisoner getting divorced, where we have a protocol for how we conduct civil process."

Doran said that as a state facility, areas around then prison would be under county jurisdiction. Contraband brought in and caught in the parking lot of the prison, for example, would have to be handled by the county. As a federal property, it would not.

"This is a win-win for the sheriff's office," Doran said.

Ron Preston (D-1) asked about the potential need for more rural deputies. "There are a lot of questions around the area, like how we're going to fund this, what it's going to cost us down the road."

Doran said he spoke at length with the feds about the situation, "because we will still have visitors coming to the prison - not for the detainees, they don't have visitation rights - but the other federal prisoners do. There will be bank robbers, high level drug dealers . . . you still have a bunch of dirt bags in prison. And their families and friends will come to visit. So we will have to think about beefing up probably Savanna and Thomson police departments, and the Sheriff's office.

Doran added that as a state prison, there would be a more constant flow of visitors, since the prisoners would be from Illinois. But as a federal facility, the prisoners come from all over the country, reducing the number and frequency of visitors substantially. This situation is less of a burden on the local authorities.

"I asked them specifically about funding other than grants. We're pretty strapped around here. There were no promises of any sort made, but they did indicate that they would try to help us fund beefing up our equipment and personnel."

Doty added that as a federal prison, "this will be cheaper for the county. We won't be using the court system, or handle security for the building."

On a roll call vote, the motion passed by a vote of 12-1, with Schubert being the lone dissenting vote.

LRA Report

Prior to the prison discussion and vote, Diane Komiskey, Executive Director of the Jo-Carroll Local Redevelopment Authority (LRA) reported she had attended the Carroll County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) meeting the night before, with mayors and other economic development representatives from around the county. They discussed certain facts about the relationship between the Thomson prison and its proposed use, and the Savanna Army Depot's (SAD) history that people in the region may not know about.

"As many of you recall, the history of the Thomson prison began at a location in the Savanna Depot Park. "It was designated to be built there to replace the jobs lost when the base closed."

Komiskey said there were 425 jobs when the SAD was selected for closure during the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process in 1995. "But there were more than 7000 employed there during WWll. At one time, it was the largest ordnance depot in the U.S. At one time, it held nuclear weapons. During WWll, it held a unit of Italian prisoners of war.

"At one time, the workers there did something that they were extremely proud of. If you've been to the SAD Museum, you may have seen the display about the loading of the bombs that were dropped during Col. Dolittle's raid on Tokyo. I have had the opportunity to hear from people that worked at the Depot, and until then, I never fully understood the level of pride that they felt, for what they were doing all those years, in a civilian capacity, in support of national security in a war effort.

"Yes, there were risks involved then. And what's being proposed now undoubtedly will involve some risk. In my mind, we should be proud that the feds are again asking us to support national security and the war effort."

She said the LRA board has not met yet to formally pass a support resolution, but polled individually, the board members unanimously support the move.

world wide web prairie advocate