Sell prison to feds, reap money, jobs

It seems our Republican members of Congress are afraid of health reform, jobs programs and our ability to keep bad guys in prison.

All of a sudden we should keep those terrorists in the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Some of these men have been there for almost eight years without being charged with acts of terror or anything else. If these folks are so terrible then why haven't they been charged and prosecuted?

We want other countries to take some of these folks off our hands, and yet we don't want any of these guys that we have called terrorists here. Remember, it was our military that captured these men. With something over 700 accused people run through Guantanamo so far, after as little as three years and up to eight years in captivity, we have convicted less than a dozen prisoners of any crimes. We released over 450 captives back to their home countries without any charges ever being brought.

In Illinois we have our own personal terrorist in prison at Marion. You probably haven't lost much sleep over him.

We have a brand new supermax prison near Thomson. We paid over $145 million for this unused prison. If we move the folks from Guantanamo here, we sell the prison to the federal prison system and the state makes a little profit on the real estate deal and about 1,000 new jobs show up. Taxes get paid by Illinois citizens, health care, and the economy improves. If we don't want this to go through, there is a mayor in the small North Dakota town of Harmon who has stated on national television that they have a max security prison with plenty of room, and his town wants and needs the jobs.

Some months ago I wrote to the White House and suggested they look at this scenario. I am not egotistic enough to believe that this is only my idea, but maybe it could be and it will work.

Ernie Ebner

Elgin