The ISS and Columbia are on different orbital inclinations relative to the Earth's equator. The ISS orbit ranges further north and south than the normal shuttle orbit. To shift Columbia's orbital inclination to match the ISS would require an enormous amount of delta-v, more than the shuttle's OMS fuel supply can support. Try as they might, they never could have matched orbit with the ISS.
Why are the oribital inclinations different? NASA made that decision when Goldin decided to being on the Russians as ISS partners. They needed the greater inclined orbit to support launching modules/crews/supplies with Russian boosters. Not only did this change the ISS-support orbital inclination, it also reduced the available orbiter ISS mission payload since additional fuel is required to reach orbit due to the inclined orbit loses some the advantage of using the Earth's east-west rotation.
Bottom line: Columbia could not have reached the ISS.
Not with sufficient fuel left to do a re-entry burn, that is. But if re-entry = death, and is therefore out of the question, that significantly changes the equations.