The federal Bureau of Prisons is hiring  for the United States Penitentiary in Thomson, IL in northwestern Illinois.

Positions have been posted on the federal government’s jobs website at www.usajobs.gov, including a contract specialist, maintenance worker foreman, an HVAC foreman and correctional supervisors. Compared with the area’s median household income, the jobs pay well.

The agency has allocated nearly $58.7 million to begin reopening the maximum-security penitentiary. About $15 million will be used to renovate the facility that was a state prison that never fully opened because of budget constraints.

The additional $43.7 million will be used for staffing and equipment to begin activating ADX USP Thomson (2,100 beds) as an administrative-maximum high security facility. ADX USP Thomson is expected to reduce crowding in high security facilities from 59 percent by 43 percent by the end of FY 2015.

Fully activating the prison the state sold to the federal government is expected to take two years and cost about $195 million.

Congress approved the budget request April 17, 2014.