Bureau of Prisons: Thomson facility will house low-security inmates

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons on Friday said that it assigned additional associate wardens to the federal prison at Thomson as the facility makes a temporary transition to housing only low-security inmates.

Staff at Thomson was informed that Colette S. Peters, director of the bureau, had made the recommendation after a review of the prison that was conducted at the start of the year.

Today’s announcement is good news for the Thomson facility – it remains part of the federal prison system, with no elimination of staffing positions, and it will help relieve some of the current overpopulation pressures BOP is experiencing at low-security facilities nationwide.”

—  U.S. Dick Durbin

At the time, Thomson was a high-security penitentiary with a minimum-security satellite camp.

The bureau’s office of public affairs said Thomson eventually will house 1,178 low-security inmates. The camp is unaffected by this change.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a news release that he was pleased the decision came without the loss of jobs.

“Today’s announcement is good news for the Thomson facility – it remains part of the federal prison system, with no elimination of staffing positions, and it will help relieve some of the current overpopulation pressures BOP is experiencing at low-security facilities nationwide,” Durbin said.

Durbin noted that when the federal government purchased Thomson more than a decade ago, “one of our goals was to help address the urgent overcrowding problem at our nation’s federal prisons, as well as make it the safest prison in the nation, for both incarcerated people and staff.”

Thomson was a state correctional facility opened in 2001 that remained largely empty until it was acquired by the Bureau of Prisons in 2012 and came on line in 2019.

In 2022, an investigation by NPR and The Marshall Project found that Thomson had five suspected homicides and two suspected suicides since its opening.

The Department of Justice investigated the deaths and also alleged mistreatment of inmates at the hands of staff.

The union representing staff has called for the removal of the warden and issued complaints about incidents of sexual misconduct by the inmates.

Both the prison and the union have been involved in efforts to recruit more staff by holding job fairs throughout the region. The Bureau of Prisons offered new incentives to address the worker shortage.

Last month, the bureau began the process of transporting the more than 1,000 high-security inmates from its Special Management Unit and its Reintegration Unit to other prisons in the federal system.

As of Friday, the prison reported that it had 127 inmates.

Durbin said staff will undergo “intensive training” to acclimate to working with a low-security population.

“I look forward to seeing Thomson reach its full potential with this temporary conversion,” Durbin said.

The bureau said it conducted a thorough search of the facility in conjunction with a thorough cleaning and repairs.

As a low-security facility, the prison will begin offering expanded visiting opportunities while also providing First Step Act programs.

First Step Act opportunities for inmates include GED classes, English as a second language instruction, a work assessment system, release preparation programming, apprenticeship programs, advanced occupational education and vocational training.