A northwestern Illinois prison will be completely activated by the end of next year, according to an official form the Bureau of Prisons. The Thomson Administrative US Penitentiary could have up to 600 employees. The government originally projected that the facility could employ up to 1,100 people. The facility will be a high-security institution and include some specialized units for inmates, who are seriously ill or mentally ill, according to the acting director of the Bureau of Prisons, Hugh Hurwitz. US Senator Dick Durbin and US Representative Cheri Bustos, along with members of Senator Tammy Duckworth’s staff recently met with Hurwitz to discuss the continued work to activate the prison. The prison will help address the potential of overcrowding in the prison system and a spur of economic growth in the area, according to Durbin. The prison should help reduce overcrowding at federal high-security facilities from 25-percent, to about 19-percent capacity, according to the Bureau of Prisons. The prison has undergone a years-long funding issue, with construction of the prison finished back in 2001. It has sat empty for more than a decade, since the state did not have enough funds to have it open up. The Bureau of Prisons announced that in 2012, it was planning on buying the facility for $165-million. Renovation work on the facility began back in June of 2015.