Chatty, Jabber and all,

I got interested in Chatty's discussion of palatial prisons because I live about 30 minutes from the Thompson Correctional Center in Thompson, Illinois. This is a prison former IL Gov. Rob Blagoyovich (sorry, I am sure that is spelled wrong) built in Northern Illinois in about 2002.

It is said to be much needed, as some of the State's existing prisons date from the late 1800's and are really costly to run -- not to mention obsolete. But once the prison was built, it developed the State had not budgeted money to staff it, so it has sat virtually empty since then.

Recently it came to national attention when Obama suggested moving the Gitmo detainees there... Though last I heard, I believe the Feds may still buy it, but it won't house the Gitmo prisoners, thank the Lord... Here's an article from a paper in the area, which I am sure is fairly reliable, discussing the current plans: Selling Thompson Prison to the Feds

Anyway, long story short, I had never heard that this was a palatial prison, so I went looking for more info.

And I came up with a clarifying article from good ol' Snopes, which I think will clear all of this up. The Snopes article, which I have linked to below, says this palatial prison DOES exist, but it is not located in the US, though various stories have been written saying that it is in Chicago -- the new Cook County Correctional Center -- or Peoria, IL.

Actually it is located in AUSTRIA. So we can't blame this one on Obama or any other US-based politico.

Here is the Snopes link, which hopefully should clarify things: Palatial Prison And, based on the supplied pictures, I would say it looks like a nice place...