Thomson Correctional Center

Administrative United States Penitentiary (AUSP) Thomson (formerly Thomson Correctional Center) is a maximum security prison located just north of Thomson, Illinois. It has an area of about 146 acres (59 ha) and comprises 15 buildings. The facility is enclosed by a 15-foot (4.6 m), 7000 volt electric fence surrounded by an additional 12-foot (3.7 m) exterior fence covered with razor wire. Thomson has eight cellhouses with a rated capacity of 2,100 beds—1,900 high-security SMU beds and 200 minimum-security beds at the onsite camp—and according to BOP officials, the potential to use some of its high-security rated capacity to house up to 400 ADX inmates. However, from its completion in 2001 to 2006, it sat empty. By 2009, only the minimum-security section houses prisoners.

In October 2012, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) purchased Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) from the State of Illinois for $165 million.[1] Initial plans were to transfer inmates from Guantanamo Bay to the facility, a move that was eventually blocked by Congress.

In August 2014, Donald Hudson was named the first warden of the prison. As of 2016, Thompson Correctional Center holds 117 inmates and employs around 250 correctional officers. Both numbers are expected to rise in coming years as planned activation of the facility ongoing.

The building of the prison was controversial; early plans suggested using the site of the former Savanna Army Depot, several miles north of Thomson. One of the main reasons the prison was controversial was concern that the prison would have a negative impact on the environment, especially being so close to the Mississippi River.

Thomson Correctional Center was built between May 1999 and November 2001. Its completion cost $140 million, but the state omitted opening costs from the 2002 budget, and Governor George H. Ryan called for a delay to the opening to save $50 million per year in operating costs. By 2009, the total cost to the state of Illinois had exceeded $170 million. The minimum security unit has an annual budget of $7 million. State budget constraints as well as labor union opposition to closing other state prisons prevented the maximum-security prison from opening.

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