Sheriff sees few safety concerns if feds buy prison at Thomson
By Vinde Wells - Editor
After meeting with state and federal officials, as well as other area sheriffs, Ogle County Sheriff Greg Beitel said Tuesday that he feels positive about the federal government’s possible purchase of the Thomson Correctional Center.
He said he is not concerned that housing federal prisoners, including some terror suspects from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, so nearby poses a danger to local residents.
“We’re not concerned about a physical threat at Thomson,” he said.
The state prison is in Carroll County, approximately 55 miles southwest of Oregon.
He said 350 terrorists are already being housed in facilities across the nation, some as close as the prison at Marion, and during World War II, German prisoners of war were held at Rock Island.
“It’s not like we’re doing something we’ve never done before,” Beitel said.
Turning the prison into a federal facility could mean a boost to the local economy, he said.
“I met with Sheriff (David) Snyders from Stephenson County and Sheriff (Jeff) Doran from Carroll County, along with the state police yesterday. We’re all facing layoffs — this may provide some job opportunities,” he said.
Beitel said he also met with Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and Phillip Carter, deputy assistant secretary of defense from the office of the Secretary of Defense Detainee Policy. Both are veterans of Iraq.
A federal take-over of the Thomson prison will not affect the number of federal prisoners boarded at the Ogle County Jail, Beitel said, because only sentenced federal prisoners and approximately 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay will be housed there.
The federal prisoners boarded at the Ogle County Jail are awaiting trial. Boarding fees for them bring approximately $1 million dollars annually into county coffers.
Officials for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Defense toured Thomson Correctional Center on Monday to decide if the state-of-the-art prison is ideal for housing some of the world’s most notorious terror suspects.
The federal government is considering buying the 146-acre Thomson prison and leasing a “small portion” to the Department of Defense to house detainees now at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said Harley Lappin, director of the Bureau of Prisons.
“This is in the early stages in assessment,” Lappin said at a news conference Monday. “There are a number of options being considered, and this is just one of those options.”
He did not say when a final decision will be made.
Tara Becker from Sauk Valley Newspapers contributed to this story.
