THOMSON, Ill. — What’s next for the Thomson Correctional Center?
No one bought the state prison at an auction Tuesday.
That’s good news to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which wants to purchase the facility.
That’s bad news to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — the state’s largest public employee union — which thinks transferring ownership to a federal entity would be a mistake.
A union official noted that the Illinois Department of Corrections said in October that its prison system was operating at 148 percent of its designed capacity.
“That kind of overcrowding greatly increases inmate tensions and the potential for violence,” said Henry Bayer, AFSCME’s executive director, in a prepared statement.
Bayer said the Illinois prison population has increased by 3,000 in the past few months and added that it does not make sense to sell the center at a time when the system is experiencing that kind of growth.
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