. `` There are other states that want to take these jobs , '' Sen. Durbin said . `` We 've got to win this competition . '' Under the proposal , he said , federal officials have said fewer than 100 detainees from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba would be housed in the 1,600-bed facility . They would be in a wing under the control of the Department of Defense , while the Bureau of Prisons would assume responsibility for the rest of the facility . The United States is asking other countries to house some of the Guantanamo detainees when the prison is closed , said Durbin , the Senate majority whip . But those countries are asking why America is not housing some of the inmates itself , he said , and use of the Thomson facility would demonstrate to them that the United States is willing to shoulder some of the responsibility . An Obama administration official said Saturday that as part of the conversion at Thomson , the Bureau of Prisons and Defense Department would enhance security to exceed those of the nation 's only supermax prison -- the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A proposal to house federal prisoners , including some detainees from Guantanamo Bay , in a largely vacant maximum-security prison would be an economic boost to struggling northern Illinois , state officials said Sunday . `` This is something that is very good for our state , it 's good for our economy , it 's good for public safety , '' Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters . Officials from the departments of Defense , Justice , Homeland Security and the federal Bureau of Prisons will visit the Thomson Correctional Center on Monday , the officials said . Quinn 's office on Saturday said the officials would see whether the `` virtually vacant , state-of-the-art facility '' in Thomson , about 150 miles west of Chicago , could be of use to the Bureau of Prisons . If it is , the governor and other officials said Sunday , it could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $ 1 billion in federal money to the area . And Dick Durbin , the Senate 's second-ranking Democrat , said he believes the proposal provides a `` once-in-a-lifetime opportunity '' for his state 's residents