| WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Jan Schakowsky, (Democrat-Illinois) released the following statement in response to proposals that Guantanamo Bay deatainees will be relocatoted to a prison in Illinois.
“The Guantanamo Bay facility is a recruiting tool for Al Queda and a mark against the morals of the United States. In closing ‘Gitmo’ and moving some detainees to Illinois, we strengthen our national security, create thousands of jobs, and bring long overdue justice to those who have committed atrocities against the United States. Our American criminal justice and penal systems are fuIly capable of handling these individuals. In fact, today there are 340 domestic and international terrorists in U.S. prisons, including 35 in Illinois. Republicans like Mark Kirk are simply pandering to irrational fears and insulting U.S. law enforcement professionals who are charged with keeping our country safe and criminals behind bars.” Taking an opposite viewpoint was Republican Congressman Don Manzullo of Illinois who called on President Obama to abandon his proposal to move up to 215 Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to northwest Illinois and instead focus on opening the state’s Thomson Correctional Facility as a maximum security federal prison without the terrorists.Manzullo, a senior member of the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade, said the federal prison system is 37 percent over capacity and is in dire need of a new prison. Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin told Manzullo that Thomson would make an ideal federal prison because it is already maximum security, fairly new, and large enough to meet the BOP’s needs. Saying it’s questionable that Congress would agree to allow the Gitmo terrorists to be detained in the United States (Congress already voted this year to deny U.S. detention to Gitmo terrorists), Manzullo is drafting a letter asking the President to separate the two issues and immediately submit a funding request to Congress to open a new federal prison in Thomson without the terrorists. Lappin estimated purchasing Thomson would cost the federal government about $120 million up front and $65 million to $85 million annually to operate. *
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