Durbin, Duckworth, Bustos call for federal investigation into report of serious abuses by staff at Thomson federal prison

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some of Illinois's top lawmakers are calling for a federal investigation into Thomson federal prison in western Illinois.

A recent report by NPR and the Marshall Project found it has become one of the deadliest prisons in the U.S., with five suspected homicides and two alleged suicides since 2019.

U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and Congresswoman Cheri Bustos want the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz to look into allegations that Thomson staff is purposely stoking tensions between inmates, encouraging attacks against sex offenders and informants, and abusing prisoners in their care.

"If these reports prove accurate, they describe conduct that would almost certainly contravene numerous [U.S. Bureau of Prisons] policies, as well as infringing the civil rights of individuals in BOP custody and possibly violating federal criminal statutes," the lawmakers wrote in their letter to Horowitz. 

Other allegations in the report include claims prisoners were left shacked to their beds for hours in their own urine and feces, without food or water; the highest rate of pepper spray use in any federal prison; and prison staff laughing at the expense of a Jewish man they were guarding as he lay dying from an attack, after being in a recreation cage with known white supremacists.

"It is imperative that you investigate the allegations detailed in the NPR and Marshall Project report, as well as any other allegations of abusive or dangerous conditions at USP Thomson that arise in the course of your investigation. In particular, we request that your investigation include the role that staffing shortages may have played in giving rise to the conditions in which the deaths and alleged abuses occurred," Durbin, Duckworth, and Bustos wrote.

Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, also plans to hold a hearing soon on the overuse of solitary confinement and restricted housing in federal prisons, including at Thomson.

Approximately 7.8% of all federal inmates currently are in some form of restricted housing.