By Paul Egan
Detroit Free Press
LANSING — The Michigan Department of Corrections has put its new prison food vendor on notice that it needs to shape up or risk losing its $145-million contract, an action sparked in part by prison unrest.
Randall Treacher, the department’s chief deputy director, sent Aramark Correctional Services a letter June 6 that said the company — which took over food operations in early December — runs out of food too often and makes unauthorized substitutions for approved menu items.
“This situation has continued to require facilities to devote attention to food service that should be focused on the safe and secure operation of our prisons,” Treacher said in the letter to Bob Marshall, Aramark’s senior vice president of operations in Philadelphia.
Starting July 1, Treacher said, the department will begin strict enforcement of the three-year contract’s terms related to meal counts and food substitutions, which could result in financial penalties and even termination of the contract.
Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Corrections Department, said the letter was, in part, a response to recent trouble at the St. Louis Correctional Facility, where tear gas was used in early June to pacify high-security prisoners who were breaking items in their cells, making noise and seizing mop handles and refusing to return them.
When the warden tried to find out what was behind the disturbances, prisoners cited the quality and quantity of the food, Marlan said.
The department wants to put a stop to the shortages and substitutions before the summer temperatures get hotter and tempers get shorter, he said.
Karen Cutler, an Aramark spokeswoman, said the company has “made a great deal of progress and continues to work diligently to address any issues that arise.”
Under the contract, Aramark is supposed to comply with a statewide standard menu that provides a daily average intake of 2,600 calories for men and 2,200 calories for women. Any variations must be approved by the department.
The department cites hundreds of incidents in which Aramark made unauthorized substitutions or not prepared the required number of meals, records show.
For example, on Feb. 22, 120 prisoners at the St. Louis facility were switched to bread and peanut butter after Aramark ran out of the waffles and sausage they were supposed to receive, according to a letter sent to Aramark by Corrections Department legal administrator Daphne Johnson. The same day at Ojibway Correctional Facility, Aramark switched from chicken salad that was mostly chicken to “a mixture that was more than 50% lettuce, with a sprinkling of chicken and salad dressing,” the letter said.
In March, the department fined Aramark $98,000. Of that, $86,000 was for food shortages and unauthorized menu substitutions linked to other prisoner demonstrations, including a passive protest at the Kinross Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula in February.
The remaining $12,000 in fines was for Aramark workers becoming overly friendly with prisoners.
Dozens of Aramark workers have been fired and banned from the prison system for transgressions that include trying to smuggle marijuana into a prison, showing up drunk for work and getting too friendly with prisoners.
The Aramark contract eliminated 370 state jobs at an estimated annual savings of $12 million to $16 million. But critics said those savings will be reduced if corrections officers have to spend extra time in the chow halls as a result of problems.
“Certainly, we recognized that the change to a contracted prison food service operation would be a large transition and issues would arise,” Marlan said Tuesday.
“However, we are also acutely aware of the importance of a reliable, responsible, consistent and quality food service operation on the safety and security of our correctional facilities,” and “we are still experiencing issues related to requirements under the contract.”