The Justice Department is still holding out hope that Congress will give the federal government money to purchase Thomson prison, the state facility in Illinois that was originally intended to hold the detainees from Guantanamo.
“We have not spent any money acquiring it, we have looked at what it will take to acquire it,” Assistant Attorney General for Administration Lee Lofthus told reporters Monday.
“We’re still hopeful money will come to enable us to acquire it, but as of this sitting we do not have the money to acquire it,” Lofthus said. “In this year’s budget we have zero to acquire it, we have $66.9 million to renovate it and start the activation of it.”
Lofthus said the reason they requested the money for renovation and activation of the facility in the 2012 fiscal year budget request is that they hope to own it by the time fiscal year 2012 rolls around.
