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Last updated 11:43 am CT September 02, 2010.

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AFSCME Opposes Plan to Sell Thomson Prison

WSIL-TV-- The union that represents most Illinois prison workers is speaking out against a proposal to sell a state correctional center.

Governor Pat Quinn, (D)-Illinois, and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, (D)-Illinois, propose using the Thomson Correctional Center in Carroll County to house Guantanamo Bay detainees, but that's not why AFSCME is objecting.

Union leaders are concerned it would make other Illinois prisons unsafe.

"There's a ripple effect, a dangerous domino effect of inmates being transferred and reclassified throughout the system because the state prisons are so over-crowded," said AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall.

Thomson houses minimum-security prisoners right now. If the prison sold Lindall says some of those inmates could be transferred to Vienna Correctional Center in Johnson County where over-crowding is already a safety concern.

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