Thomson prison designated initial quarantine site for new federal inmates
- Anthony Watt
- Apr 30, 2020 Updated 3 hrs ago
CDC via AP, File
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has designated the federal prison in Thomson, Ill., as one of a number of quarantine sites for new federal inmates as they are vetted for the coronavirus.
Thomson was initially built as an Illinois Department of Corrections prison but was sold to the federal government in 2012.
Thomson and other sites around the U.S. will be used to house newly convicted people who are beginning their sentences, the bureau said Wednesday in a written response to a query about the program. The new inmates will be held for 14 days and observed for symptoms of COVID-19 before being sent to the prisons at which they are to serve their sentences.
Normally these new inmates and people who are being held pending trial are kept in specific detention facilities, but those locations do not have the housing capacity for longer stays, the bureau said. The quarantine locations are meant to take pressure off the detention facilities.
The bureau said that as part of its COVID-19 response it had limited movement for existing inmates, but must by law accept new inmates and hold people remanded to its custody who are awaiting trial in a federal case.
The quarantine sites are not for housing inmates known to have COVID-19, and new inmates are screened for infection.
Inmates who exhibit symptoms won’t be accepted, the bureau said Wednesday, and also said earlier this month that inmates who exhibit symptoms during pretransfer screenings are isolated.
When they are transferred, the prisoners will wear cloth coverings over their faces, the BOP said.
It said the quarantine facilities had the needed protective and sanitation equipment, the bed space and the staff to handle the quarantine inmates.
As of Wednesday, no transfers of new inmates under the quarantine program had been scheduled, the bureau said.
The bureau was also asked how many inmates nationwide it expected would be quarantined at the beginning of the program, and how many were expected to use it during the remainder of the pandemic. It was also asked the same questions about Thomson specifically.
The BOP did not provide that information.
Thomson has both a high-security section and a minimum security camp, according to its website. Its total population is 1,088 inmates, with all but 78 of them being held in the high-security portion.
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Illinois, and U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, have expressed concerns about the quarantine program, arguing that the BOP’s screening process does not have adequate testing that would prevent the transfer of infected but asymptomatic inmates (they have no symptoms) and that Thomson already has a staffing shortage.
The BOP was asked for a response to the legislators’ release but did not include one in its answers to queries for information about the program.
The same legislators complained earlier in April that the bureau transferred 20 federal prisoners from the Metropolitan Correction Center in Chicago to Thomson. There is an outbreak at the Chicago facility.
The bureau’s COVID-19 resource page did not list any COVID-19 cases at Thomson as of Thursday.
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