Illinois Banks $165 Million in Prison Sale

CHICAGO — Cash-strapped Illinois will pocket $165 million for its sale of the Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government, which will open it as a federal Bureau of Prisons facility.

Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., made the announcement Tuesday. Quinn said the state would use the proceeds to pay off debt issued to build the prison and hopefully to pay down part of the approximately $8 billion backlog of bills the state carried over into the new fiscal year July 1.

It's up to the state General Assembly, however, to allocate the funds, which could be received by the end of the year.

The state is also promoting the sale as a means to bolster the local economy, which could see an annual economic impact of $200 million and the creation of 1,100 jobs.

"This is excellent news that will create more than 1,100 jobs in northwestern Illinois and provide relief to taxpayers across the state who will no longer be forced to pay for an empty, unnecessary facility," Governor Quinn said.

The $129 million maximum-security prison built in 2001 on a 146-acre site in western Illinois in the Quad Cities region but the state never fully used the prison and it was emptied in 2010 as the state pursued a sale.

The federal sale has been stalled for several years over questions of whether terrorism suspects might be housed there. Durbin said they would not and federal law requires that prisoners from Guantanamo Bay be transferred only to military facilities.

Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka's office has not yet released the state's bill backlog for the last quarter, but the number was estimated at about $7.5 billion to $8 billion as of June 30, underscoring the state's budget and liquidity crunch even as tax revenues continue to rise.

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