The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"It always baffled me that they put that much money in a prison they didn't open. ... I guess I won't believe it until I see them unloading that first batch of prisoners," said Barb Kessler, a clerk at a produce market in this town of about 550 people that bills itself as the melon capital of the world.

Such skepticism seems justified after hopes were raised then dashed for years as Illinois battled massive budget deficits that tied up the $50 million a year needed to open the state's newest prison.

Some worry now that the $7.7 million for the partial opening -- proposed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and approved by the Legislature -- was just election-year sleight of hand. They fear the money won't follow to fill Thomson's eight sprawling cell houses, completed in late 2001.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said it's too early to speculate on the governor's budget plan for next year if he's re-elected. But one area lawmaker says the rest of the prison could open as soon as next summer if the state's improving finances hold.

"I don't like to give anybody false hope. I've tried to keep this situation one of reality, but I think it's looking good. I don't know what kind of odds I'd put on it if I was a gambling man, but I think it looks good," said state Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline.

Officials say the scaled-back opening will provide little economic boost for this rural bedroom community, where some residents drive nearly an hour to work and the Mississippi River draws flocks of hunters and fishermen.

"The jobs are one-tenth of what we were promised. So is it good? Yes. Is it going to change the economy? No," said Lawrence Bruckner, a Thomson native and former lieutenant governor candidate who built a hotel and restaurant that has struggled as the prison sat idle.

Acting village president Randy Starr agreed, saying Thomson won't get a real economic jolt until all of the prison's jobs and cells are filled. But he said some merchants are already reporting better sales as workers ready the prison for 200 minimum-security inmates who will start arriving in groups of about 25 by early September.

"Things have picked up for us. Not dramatically, but anything is an improvement," said Mike Wheetley, who owns a downtown bar and grill where business fell 30 percent after prison construction wrapped up.

But officials say Wheetley's watering hole and the other handful of businesses in Thomson will flourish if the state comes through with money to fully open the prison, adding about 600 jobs and 1,600 inmates, who also will draw a steady steam of visitors.

"That will be a real shot in the arm," said Boland, a state lawmaker since 1995. "That will be just like putting megavitamins into the area's economy."

Chamber of Commerce president Jonathan Whitney says growth would be solid but not explosive if the prison is filled. Housing in and around Thomson could increase by about 10 percent and new restaurants and taverns could open, but probably not the grocery store and fast-food outlets many want.

Still, even more growth could lie ahead, said Whitney, publisher of The Carroll County Review, a weekly newspaper.

He said Thomson's prison could further boost its inmate population -- adding even more jobs -- if the state opts for two prisoners to a cell instead of one, the practice at most of Illinois' other 27 lockups. And other projects also are in the works, including a planned ethanol plant that would could create about 60 new jobs.

"We need jobs. Most of them are so far away. If you find something around here, you're lucky," Brandy Arnold of Savanna said last week while helping her fianc De's sister with a yard sale in Thomson.

The long wait on the prison proved too long for some Thomson business owners, who were forced to sell after building or expanding to serve an expected throng of workers and visitors who never came.

Some residents also wonder whether an earlier opening could have saved the town's schools, which merged last year with nearby Savanna and Mount Carroll, leaving only fourth- and fifth-graders in Thomson.

But others say the frustrating delay also quieted dissent over the prison that once divided the small town. Even opponents, they say, think the prison should be used now that it's there.

"I'm sure there are still some who are against it," said William Wagner, an 82-year-old Thomson native who came back home from Chicago after retiring 20 years ago. "But they're not doing any talking to speak of."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-thomsonprison,1,6833500.story
Copyright © 2006, The Associated Press