If you drive through the quiet, rolling cornfields of Carroll County, Illinois, you eventually hit a massive wall of concrete and steel that looks wildly out of place. This is USP Thomson. Officially, it’s the United States Penitentiary, Thomson. For years, it was marketed as the solution to the federal government’s most dangerous problems. But the reality behind those electrified fences has been anything but smooth. Honestly, it’s been a bit of a mess.
Building a high-security prison is one thing. Running it without it becoming a headline-grabbing disaster is another.
USP Thomson has a strange history. It sat nearly empty for years. The state of Illinois built it in 2001, but they couldn't afford to actually open the thing. It just sat there. A ghost prison. Eventually, the federal government bought it in 2012 for about $165 million. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had big plans. They wanted to move some of the most high-risk inmates in the country there to ease the pressure on ADX Florence. It didn't exactly go to plan.
The Brutal Reality Inside USP Thomson
You’ve probably heard stories about "The Rock" or Supermax, but Thomson developed a reputation that was terrifying for different reasons. By 2020, it was becoming known as one of the deadliest places in the federal system. Think about that. In a system that includes some of the most notorious gangs and cartels, Thomson was standing out for its violence.
Between 2019 and 2023, reports surfaced of multiple inmate deaths. It wasn't just prisoner-on-prisoner violence, though that was a huge part of it. There were serious allegations of staff misconduct. We're talking about "four-point restraints" being used for hours or even days. In the Special Management Unit (SMU), things got dark. The SMU was designed for the "worst of the worst"—guys who couldn't play nice in other prisons. But when you put a bunch of high-conflict individuals in a high-pressure environment with understaffed guards, you get a powder keg.
It blew.
The Marshall Project and NPR did some incredible investigative work on this. They documented cases like Bobby Everson and Matthew Phillips, inmates who were killed while in custody there. Phillips, specifically, was reportedly beaten to death by other inmates while his hands were cuffed behind his back. That's a massive failure of security. It’s the kind of thing that makes the Department of Justice take notice, and they finally did.
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Why the BOP Flipped the Script
Last year, the Bureau of Prisons did something somewhat radical. They decided to pull the plug on the high-security mission at USP Thomson. Basically, they realized they couldn't keep people safe.
The staffing shortages were—and are—insane. You can't run a high-security facility if you don't have enough bodies in uniform. In rural Illinois, finding people willing to work one of the most dangerous jobs in the country is a tall order. At one point, the prison was operating with a massive vacancy rate. They tried offering huge signing bonuses. It didn't matter. The turnover was too high because the environment was too toxic.
The Shift to Low Security
So, what happens to a massive, high-security fortress when you give up on the high-security part? You downgrade it.
In 2023, the BOP announced that USP Thomson would be converted into a low-security facility. This was a huge blow to the local economy's expectations, but a necessary move for safety. The "Special Management Unit" was moved to other facilities like USP Lewisburg. Thousands of high-security inmates were shipped out. Now, the facility houses lower-risk individuals who are closer to their release dates.
It’s a different vibe now. Sorta.
The walls are still there. The towers are still there. But the internal pressure has dipped. Low-security inmates have more freedom of movement. They participate in more work programs. The goal shifted from "containment at all costs" to "reentry prep." It’s a massive pivot for a facility that was once touted as the next ADX.
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The Economic Impact on Carroll County
You can't talk about USP Thomson without talking about the town of Thomson itself. It's a tiny village. When the feds bought the prison, the locals thought they’d hit the lottery. They expected hundreds of high-paying federal jobs. They expected people to move there, buy houses, and shop at the local grocery stores.
It hasn't been the windfall they hoped for.
Because of the staffing issues, many employees don't actually live in Thomson. They commute from further away, or they're "temporary duty" staff flown in from other prisons across the country. When the mission changed to low security, there was a lot of fear that the prison might close entirely or that jobs would be cut. For now, the jobs are still there, but the "prestige" of hosting a high-security federal penitentiary has faded. It's just a big employer now. A complicated one.
The Lingering Legal Battles
Just because the security level changed doesn't mean the past went away. There are still multiple lawsuits winding through the courts. Families of inmates who died or were injured are seeking accountability.
The DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has been all over this. They’ve looked into the use of force, the medical care—or lack thereof—and the general management of the facility. If you're looking for a case study in how federal oversight can fail and then desperately try to catch up, USP Thomson is it.
One of the biggest issues was the "double-celling" of rival gang members. In a high-security environment, that’s basically asking for a murder to happen. Why was it happening? Lack of space and lack of staff to manage the moves. It’s a systemic failure that the BOP is still trying to live down.
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What Most People Get Wrong About Thomson
People hear "Federal Prison" and they think of The Shawshank Redemption or Orange Is the New Black. It’s rarely like that.
USP Thomson wasn't just "tough." It was dysfunctional. There’s a difference. A tough prison is one where the rules are strict but followed. A dysfunctional prison is one where the rules are bypassed because everyone is just trying to survive the shift. That’s what seemed to be happening in the SMU.
Also, it's not a "country club" now that it's low security. It's still prison. You're still behind a fence. You still can't leave. But the threat of being shanked in the shower has dropped significantly, which is generally considered a win for everyone involved.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights for Families and Advocates
If you have a loved one at USP Thomson or are tracking the facility for legal reasons, here is the current state of play:
- Monitor the Security Level: If an inmate is classified as high-security, they shouldn't be at Thomson anymore. If they are, that’s a major red flag and likely a clerical error or a temporary holding situation that needs to be addressed via a BP-9 (Administrative Remedy).
- Staffing Levels are Key: Always check the current staffing reports if you are advocating for an inmate’s safety. Understaffed prisons are inherently more dangerous, regardless of the official security designation.
- Medical Care Access: With the shift to low security, there has been a push to improve programming and medical access. If an inmate is being denied "Care Level" appropriate treatment, it's often due to the same old staffing shortages.
- FOIA is Your Friend: The Bureau of Prisons is notoriously slow, but Freedom of Information Act requests regarding USP Thomson's transition have been shedding light on how these decisions were made. If you're a researcher or a lawyer, keep digging into the OIG reports.
The story of USP Thomson isn't over. It's just in a different chapter. It went from a billion-dollar "ghost" to a violent "high-security" nightmare, and now it's trying to find its footing as a low-security reentry center. Whether it can actually succeed in that mission depends entirely on whether the BOP can fix the culture that broke it in the first place.
Keep an eye on the OIG's website for updated audits. Those reports are usually the first sign of whether things are actually getting better or just being swept under a different rug. The transition to low security was a "reset" button, but the hardware is still old, and the ghosts of the SMU era still haunt the hallways.
Resources for Further Reading
- Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Reports: Search specifically for "USP Thomson" to see the latest findings on use-of-force and staffing.
- The Marshall Project: Their investigative series on Thomson remains the gold standard for understanding what went wrong.
- BOP Inmate Locator: Useful for verifying if high-security individuals have actually been moved out of the facility.
The reality is that USP Thomson is a monument to the complications of the American carceral system. It's a place where big-government planning met small-town reality and hit a wall. Hard. Knowing the history helps you understand why the current changes are so significant—and why they were so desperately needed.