MICHIGAN -- Findings released Tuesday suggest that the Michigan Department of Corrections and Aramark failed to properly address nearly half of roughly 3,700 issues reported over food safety and security within the state's prisons.
In a report from liberal watchdog group Progress Michigan, a review of roughly 25,000 pages of emails of documents between the MDOC and Aramark reveal that of 3,707 issues--1,791 during an eight month period between March and October 2014--went unresolved.
The findings account for 48 percent of reported issues.
Representatives for Progress Michigan said the request for the documents was prompted after the state prison's director cancelled a nearly $100,000 fine against Aramark in September.
The report concludes the Snyder administration repeatedly failed to hold prison food contractor Aramark accountable for problems, which then became recurring problems, furthermore questioning whether oversight under a new food contractor would actually improve.
"This report shows the Aramark scandals went way beyond the damning headlines already reported," Lonnie Scott, executive director with Progress Michigan, said in a statement Tuesday.
The transition has already begun to a new private food vendor, a move that comes just midway through what was supposed to be a three-year, $145 million contract with Aramark.
Thecontract ended last month following a mutual agreement due to contract disputes. The food provider has been the subject of numerous unflattering headlines, ranging from incidents of maggots being found in prisoners' food, to Aramark workers caught having sexual relationships with inmates.
Trinity Services Group will take over as the state's new prison food service by the end of September. The Trinity deal is also set to last three years, costing taxpayers roughly $158 million.
Chris Gautz, spokesperson for MDOC, said the report paints an untrue picture of the state's involvement in addressing issues in the prison. He told FOX 17 the report should be discounted because it is based on old issues about a company that will no longer be providing services to the state's prisons.
"Our employees do an outstanding job of monitoring our contract… evidenced by the fact there were about 25,000 pages of documents," he said "Whenever any issues arose in any prison, in any of our kitchens those were noted.”
Gautz said the bulk of the issues that went unresolved or were considered recurring where not the more severe headline-grabbing issues, but minor infractions like prison workers not wearing their hair nets properly.
As for the bottom line for taxpayers, Gautz said using privatized food service still remains the most cost effective route.
Aramark's contract, on an annual basis, cost the state $52.5 million, according to Gautz. The state expects to pay Trinity about $52.9 million each year, compared to $65.7 million spent in the year before Aramark was hired on public state workers, not including legacy costs.
“Taxpayers are still seeing savings of upwards of 20 percent from what they were paying when state employees operated the kitchens, so taxpayers are still seeing savings upward of $12 million per year," he said.
The report recommends Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette investigate the state's contract with Aramark and requests that the state make all contract monitor reports available online to the public.
