In July, we told you about the nightmarish experience that Michigan officials had after they turned over prison food services to a private company, Aramark Correctional Services.
The private prison industry had paid for a bogus “study” suggesting that states which privatized their prisons would reap huge benefits — with better services delivered at lower costs — but Michigan found that the contract with Aramark, which pays its employees an average of $11 per hour in compensation, was dogged by incidents of its workers smuggling in contraband, having sex with prisoners, serving rancid food that sickened inmates and running out of food (which leads to unrest and is considered a serious security issue in a correctional facility).
The private prison company had been plagued with problems in other states as well. Alan Pyke reported for ThinkProgress that Aramark’s “poor handling of a food contract was blamed for causing riots in a Kentucky prison in 2009, and issues similar to the ones Michigan officials report have cropped up in Aramark-run prison kitchens in Florida, Ohio and Indiana.
Our July post relied in part on some intrepid reporting by Paul Egan of the Detroit Free-Press. And last week, Egan followed up with another eye-opening story about Aramark’s disastrous track record…
First it was drug smuggling and sex acts with inmates.
Now it’s murder for hire.
An Aramark Correctional Services food service worker at Kinross Correctional Facility in the eastern Upper Peninsula is suspected of approaching an inmate there about arranging to have another inmate killed, a Michigan State Police official confirmed Wednesday.
Det.-Sgt. Michael Schroeder of the Michigan State Police Sault Ste. Marie post told the Free Press Wednesday police have sent a warrant request to the Chippewa County Prosecutor’s Office following a lengthy investigation and are awaiting a response.
An inmate complained in July that a food service worker approached him about arranging to kill an inmate held at another facility, in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, Schroeder said.
The worker was placed on a Corrections Department “stop order” — banning him from prison property — but has not been arrested pending the conclusion of the investigation, Schroeder said. He declined to release further details, saying “it’s still being investigated.”
Read the rest at The Detroit Free-Press.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Are you aware of our Comment Policy?
BillMoyers.com encourages conversation and debate around issues, events and ideas related to content on Moyers & Company and the BillMoyers.com website.
If your comments consistently or intentionally make this community a less civil and enjoyable place to be, you and your comments will be excluded from it.
We need your help with this. If you feel a post is not in line with the comment policy, please flag it so that we can take a look. Comments and questions about our policy are welcome. Please send an email to info@moyersmedia.com
Find out more about BillMoyers.com's privacy policy and terms of service.