“We are still concerned about losing our jobs, about staff being forced to transfer to different institutions,” said Jonathan Zumkehr, the president of Thomson’s local union branch. “People have bought houses, our members are people who live in the community, and closing would have a devastating effect.”
The decision to shutter Thomson’s restrictive unit comes a few weeks after Justice Department officials conducted a site visit to investigate claims that the prison’s new warden was not doing enough to safeguard employees, especially women, from lewd and abusive behavior of male inmates.
In January, officials with the union representing the prison’s staff, the American Federation of Government Employees, called for the removal of the warden, Thomas Bergami, claiming he had failed to take steps — including the installation of shutters on the portals of cells — to protect guards and other employees.
The union cited 321 incidents last year of “sexual misconduct against staff,” including episodes where inmates exposed themselves or masturbated in front of employees, in a letter to senior bureau officials.
“Our union has raised repeated concerns about this persistent pattern of abuse, but nothing has been done in response,” Everett Kelley, the union’s president, said in a statement. “Employees are being subjected to this criminal behavior repeatedly yet are getting no support from their employer in putting an end to this cycle. This failure of leadership must be addressed.”
Bureau officials would not say if Mr. Bergami would remain as warden.
Thomson has had a long and troubled history. It was built starting in 1999, at a cost of $140 million, by the state of Illinois, but never housed state prisoners. The prison was then bought by the federal government for $160 million a few years later and was briefly considered as an alternative for detainees housed at Guantánamo Bay.
The prison can accommodate more than 2,000 inmates in eight cell blocks — but it has averaged less than half that number over the years.
