Lawmakers Discuss Plan For Gitmo Inmates In Ill.

DEANNA BELLANDI

CHICAGO (AP) — Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Sunday tried to build support and counter criticism of a proposal to sell a prison in rural northwestern Illinois to the federal government to house Guantanamo Bay detainees and other inmates.

Federal officials are expected to visit the maximum security Thomson Correctional Center, about 150 miles west of Chicago, on Monday.

Both Quinn and Durbin said the possibility of selling the prison to the federal government was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help create about 3,000 jobs, both at the prison and directly in surrounding communities in an area where unemployment has topped 10 percent.

"We have an opportunity to bring thousands of good-paying jobs to Illinois when we need them the most," Durbin said at a news conference in Chicago, one of several Illinois stops Sunday. "We have an opportunity to bring them to a part of our state that has been struggling and that's an opportunity we are not going to miss."

Critics, including Republican members of Congress from Illinois and GOP candidates for governor, have been quick to condemn the prospect of the sale because of safety concerns.