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Topic: Aramark -alleged hit men & mob ties
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Aramark prison worker suspected in attempted hired hit
Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau 12:23 a.m. EDT September 25, 2014

LANSING – 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.

Aramark worker arrested after 5 inmates found with heroin, other drugs


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."

Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan confirmed an Aramark employee was banned from Kinross for "alleged criminal behavior," but would not comment further. Aramark spokeswoman Karen Cutler said she would not comment on an active police investigation.

The $145-million, three-year contract with Philadelphia-based Aramark has been the subject of ongoing controversy since the company took over statewide prison kitchen operations on Dec. 8, displacing about 370 state employees.

The state fined Aramark $98,000 in March for food shortages, unauthorized menu substitutions and over-familiarity between kitchen workers and inmates, and another $200,000 in August after problems persisted. But the state recently confirmed it quietly waived the March fine soon after it was imposed, and Aramark never paid it.

There have been two incidents of Aramark employees arrested for trying to smuggle drugs into state prisons to supply inmates and several instances in which Aramark workers and inmates have been caught engaging in sex acts.

Democrats and a few Republicans have called on Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to cancel the contract. Snyder said recently he has set up a new contract monitoring system and the problems are being addressed.

"This is bizarre," Michigan Corrections Organization Executive Directer Mel Grieshaber said of the latest controversy.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com
Post Thu Sep 25, 2014 7:49 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Aramark Is Evil: Statement Of Purpose--A "Trail of Bread ...

aramarksux.blogspot.com/2008/10/sample-statement-of-purpose...

·
By Johnny Lunch Battle ·
Published Oct 31, 2008

Oct 31, 2008 · Aramark is a horrible, abusive company that has a well-documented history of mistreating employees, lowering industry standards, and using public dollars ...
Post Thu Sep 25, 2014 8:18 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The author started the blog because the Minnesota Dailey changed their format and eliminated his series of articles on Aramack that he had written. He documented the companies ties to the mob and the elimination of AFSCME employees. Comments from employees detail abusive work conditions and their unfair pricing practices.
Post Thu Sep 25, 2014 8:39 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Aramark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramark



Aramark Corporation, known commonly as Aramark, is an American foodservice, facilities, and clothing provider supplying businesses, educational institutions, sports ...
History ·
Global operations ·
Chilean miners rescue ·
Ethical history

Ethical history
In recent years, Aramark has made several moves to boost its social responsibility image. In 2008, Aramark Building Community, a company-wide volunteer initiative, was created to help neighborhoods rebuild community centers as well as provide support for job readiness programs, nutrition and wellness education, and basic human needs for families and neighborhoods. A spring 2009 survey of over 92,000 students supported the company’s concept of trayless dining, which was developed to reduce the amount of campus waste.[21] In July 2009, Aramark and the Colorado Rockies opened what is believed to be the first gluten-free concession stand in major league baseball.[22] By 2010, Aramark made gluten-free foods available at all 12 of its major league baseball accounts.[23]

In response to First Lady Michelle Obama's childhood obesity "Let's Move!" campaign in February 2010, Aramark, along with other major food service providers, pledged to reduce the amount of fat, sugar and salt in their meals over the next five years.[24]

In April 2010, Aramark and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers reached a resolution that called for a 70−80% increase in wages for tomato pickers.[25]

Aramark has also been the subject of a number of scandals regarding labor practices and business ethics. These include firing workers for reporting unsanitary food conditions, paying fringe wages, not paying for all hours worked, not paying backpay, and firing or eliminating the positions of those who file Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claims.[26][27][28][29][30] Likewise, Aramark has been criticized for skimping portion sizes, food safety issues, and overcharging state governments (Michigan, Kentucky, and Florida) that have used their food in prisons; a Kentucky prison riot is reputed to have been caused by the low quality of food Aramark provided to inmates.[31][32] In 2013, an investigation by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges discovered that the food provided to inmates at Burlington County Jail in New Jersey was substandard and spoiled, and often made prisoners sick with diarrhea and vomiting.[33] Maggots found in the food preparation areas at Parnall Correctional Facility in Jackson, Michigan may have been the source of an outbreak of food-borne illness.[34][35] Maggots were also found in Aramark food products at Michigan's Charles Egeler Reception & Guidance Center[36] and two Ohio prisons, the Ohio Reformatory for Women and Trumbull Correctional Institute.[37] Ohio and Michigan fined Aramark $270,000 and $200,000 respectively.[38]

Aramark has been criticized for the "filthy conditions" in Chicago Public Schools following the privatization of janitorial services and Aramark receiving a $260 million contract for their management. Responding to these reports, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said "Aramark's job is to clean the schools, so our principals and teachers can focus on their fundamental responsibility: education. They will either live up to that contract and clean up the schools or they can clean out their desks and get out."[39]
Post Thu Sep 25, 2014 8:44 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Thistle 9.11 - Aramark's Ties to the Mob - MIT ...


web.mit.edu/activities/thistle/v9/9.11/5aramark.html

The Mob! By Patrick Burkart, ... Also, Aramark has been suspected of having massive organized crime connections in its transportation and vending-machine divisions
Post Thu Sep 25, 2014 9:30 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? The Mob!

By Patrick Burkart, Travis Donoho, and Paul Odekirk


This month MIT must decide whether to renew its contract with an
unscrupulous and lawbreaking dining services provider. Aramark,
formerly ARA, is a multibillion dollar mammoth, operating various
services illegally throughout the world. Aramark currently operates at
MIT, Boston University, and numerous other college campuses across the
country; it is one of the top three food service providers in the U.S.
For years, Aramark has committed and admitted to unfair and
illegal trading practices, including violating federal anti-trust
laws. Also, Aramark has been suspected of having massive organized
crime connections in its transportation and vending-machine
divisions. The food service giant first got into trouble with the law
in 1964, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) negotiated a consent
order in which ARA did not acknowledge guilt, but agreed anyway to
dispose of some of its vending machine companies worth an annual $7.7
million. Again, in 1973, ARA accepted another FTC consent order, this
one requiring disposal of the vending and periodical companies that it
owned. On top of that, ARA had to pledge to stay out of certain
markets delimited by the FTC. In 1979, the FTC successfully pressed
for and won a $300,000 civil penalty against ARA after the company was
found guilty of violating the terms of the 1973 agreement. This
penalty also required ARA to dispose of some of its business
assets. ARA was also fined an additional $80,000 in 1973 for
conspiracy to fix cigarette prices in Cincinnati.
In 1977, ARA admitted to making questionable and sometimes
illegal payments between 1970 and 1976, according to a Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC) report. A total of $393,000 in payments were
made to politicians and "client related" recipients who were
influential in handing over state contracts to ARA. Also, ARA admitted
receiving $504,000 in questionable and sometimes illegal rebates from
1970 to 1976. ARA made $23,400 in political campaign contributions
that the company itself reported to the SEC as illegal, and another
$11,550 in legal but improperly recorded campaign
contributions. "Disbursements and gifts" to "client related
persons" amounted to $370,000 during the same 1970-1976 period. The
SEC investigated ARA without recommending action in 1982. The next
year, Gerald F. O'Leary, a member of the Boston School Committee,
pleaded guilty to extortion of $50,000 from ARA in return for awarding
ARA a $40 million dollar contract.
A mental retardation center owned by Aramark was decertified
in Texas, and the company has paid large fines for failing to meet
nursing home standards in Texas and California. In Colorado, ARA
nursing home abuses were described by an assistant state attorney as
"the most severe disregard of patient care of any case to my
knowledge." A 1992 Colorado case brought by the state against ARA
charged the corporate giant with violating nursing home standards in
order to cut costs. Back in Texas, ARA fought accusations that daily
health reports were routinely falsified, that bedridden patients were
seldom turned over and as a result developed painful bedsores, and
that three nights of every week 90 of their patients were under the
care of an intoxicated nurse.
Aramark also has a reputation for engaging in unfair business
practices. A former Executive Vice President of ARA's transportation
division testified in a Hawaii court that ARA conspired to kill
competition by submitting below-cost bids to clinch a contract, with
the intention of raising prices once the competition had gone out of
business.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Aramark also has links
to organized crime. Reportedly, Aramark paid an ex-FBI agent-and
former ARA employee - $167,000 plus lawyers' fees out of court not to
discuss his deposition, which highlights the dining service
corporation's organized crime connections.

Sources: Passing the Bucks: The Contracting Out of Public Services
(AFSCME), The Wall Street Journal.

This article is adapted from an earlier version that appeared in
(sub)Tex, an underground newspaper publishing out of Austin, Texas.


[thistle homepage] [Volume 9] [9.13 - contents]
Post Thu Sep 25, 2014 9:32 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

October 7, 2014
Progress Michigan

The Top Five Aramark Scandals You Haven’t Heard Of

y Matthew Kovac

In the wake of recent revelations implicating Aramark employees in drug smuggling and even murder-for-hire in Michigan prisons, it’s worth taking a closer look at the company’s abysmal national and international record. From prison profiteering to endangering hospital patients and children, here are five of the worst out-of-state Aramark scandals that you might not have heard about yet.

1. Contributing to a Deadly Superbug Outbreak in Ontario

Aramark’s subpar cleaning services for the Niagara Health System drew fire for failing to prevent the C. difficile outbreak that swept through Ontario hospitals in 2011, resulting in more than a dozen deaths.

“Aramark contributed to the C. difficile outbreak by cutting corners, using cheaper cleaning chemicals, and reducing staffing levels,” Service Employees International Union Local 1 president Sharleen Stewart told the Toronto Star.

The Niagara Health System ended its contract with Aramark the following March, according to the Star.

2. Triggering a Prison Riot in Kentucky

Aramark’s poor-quality food set the stage for a riot at the Northpoint Training Center in Kentucky on August 21, 2009 that left eight inmates and eight guards injured.

Earlier that day, inmates protested the prison’s food services by throwing their meals on the floor, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Six buildings were destroyed in the riot, including those housing the kitchen and canteen.

State investigators later found that “there had been complaints for years about the quality of the food, the portion sizes and the continual shortage and substitutions for scheduled menu items,” in addition to concerns about kitchen sanitation.

3. Skimping on Prison Meals in Indiana

Aramark has also come under fire for shortchanging inmates in the Westville Correctional Facility’s maximum-security unit, who were given smaller-sized sack lunches instead of hot meals for nearly seven months, according to In These Times.

On the new prison diet, “people were losing weight, people were not getting the proper nutrients and calories,” one inmate told the magazine.

Indiana settled an ACLU lawsuit alleging similar mistreatment of inmates last year.

4. Exacerbating Health Risks in Chicago Public Schools

School sanitation has suffered since Chicago Public Schools outsourced management of custodial services to Aramark and another contractor earlier this year, according to a recent report from the Chicago Teachers Union.

A survey of the CTU membership revealed that Aramark’s cost-cutting measures have overburdened custodial staff, resulting in classrooms going uncleaned for days at a time.

“All of this dust and grime aggravates the respiratory systems of children and makes those with asthma and other respiratory problems seriously ill,” wrote one respondent.

5. Rampant Contract Violations in Florida

Aramark was fined more than $240,000 by the Florida Department of Corrections in 2008 for “slow meal delivery, insufficient staffing and other contract violations,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Faced with a competitive bidding process and requirements to “add new, costlier food items, including French toast and squash,” the Times reports that Aramark chose to end its relationship with the Florida Department of Corrections later that year.

Aramark, which ranked 216 on that year’s Fortune 500, cited its “unsustainable financial position.”

Despite Aramark’s extensive track record of putting profits before people, Gov. Snyder approved a three-year, $145 million contract with the company last year. It’s high time to cancel the contract.
Post Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:32 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Eclectablog - eclectic blogging for a better tomorrowFollowRSS

Daily Kos member

.
Fri Sep 12, 2014 at 05:44 AM PDT.

UPDATED: MI-GOV SCANDAL - Snyder admin quietly canceled $98K fine for for-profit prison food vendor


by
EclectablogFollow .




Originally posted at Eclectablog.

I've written extensively about Aramark, the for-profit prison food vendor that supplies food services to prisons across Michigan. They've experienced repeated food shortages, employees bringing drugs and contraband to prisoners, employees having sex with prisoners, and most recently, maggots in multiple food preparation areas.

The state started cracking down on Aramark last March when they imposed at $98,000 fine for food shortages and unauthorized menu substitutions. Things didn't get better, however, and, in August, they got hit with another fine, this one for $200,000.

However, after a FOIA request by Progress Michigan, we now learn that the original $98,000 fine was never imposed. It was, in fact, canceled with Snyder administration officials telling Aramark administrators that they had been "too harsh" on them.
.



In the e-mails, obtained by the liberal group Progress Michigan under the Freedom of Information Act, [Michigan Department of Corrections Dan] Heyns told a top aide to Gov. Rick Snyder that he cracked down on Aramark because “we were concerned about losing control of a joint,” but promised to ease up.
“I know where you want to go,” Heyns said in a March 13 e-mail to Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s chief of staff.

“I will tone down my attack dogs, delay or cancel any fines and give Aramark time to solve the problems,” Heyns said.

“I met with one of their honchos today and he gets the picture. We were concerned about losing control of a joint, and told them repeatedly with no improvement. Our corrective action was too harsh.”

The message Muchmore sent Heyns just prior to that was redacted by the state, according to Progress Michigan.

But earlier, Muchmore had forwarded Heyns a newspaper clipping about state lawmakers getting concerned about controversies surrounding the contract — particularly Aramark workers engaged in sex acts with inmates — and asked: “Do you feel you’ve got this under control?”

“Answer is no but I am working on it,” Heyns replied.
You can read the FOIAed emails HERE.
What this shows is that the Snyder administration was going easy on their for-profit vendor to whom they had outsourced last spring, hoping to tamp down public criticism of them and sweep the entire affair under the rug. Unfortunately, this appears to have had the opposite impact and things actually got worse in Aramark prisons. Instead of just food shortages, they were forced to ban over 80 Aramark employees from even entering Michigan prisons after they were caught bringing in drugs and cell phones and other items, engaging in sex acts with prisoners, and, of course, the notorious news that maggots were found in Aramark-run food facilities.

Keep in mind, Aramark is having problems in state prisons across the country. In Michigan, the Snyder administration thought that treating them with kid gloves and coddling them would fix the problems they were experiencing. Instead, the opposite was true.

Governor Snyder needs to admit that this experiment with privatizing an essential government service to a for-profit vendor has been a colossal failure, fire Aramark, and resume state control over prison food service. He assured us that things would be done more efficiently with a private corporation running things but that has proven to be just a dream in the mind of our CEO governor. It's a clear indication that, when profits are on the line, corners will be cut and prisoners will suffer.

Instead, Gov. Snyder has chosen to put a man previously embroiled in prison administration controversy in charge of overseeing the Aramark contract:


Late Wednesday, the governor’s office said a former prison health care company executive, who served a short stint as head of the Florida prison system, will oversee monitoring of Michigan’s prison food contract.
Edwin Buss, who also used to run the Indiana Department of Corrections, will be paid $160,000 a year. His first year’s salary will come from fines levied against Aramark for violations of its $145-million, three-year contract with the State of Michigan, said Wurfel.
Buss was embroiled in questionable activities himself in the Florida prison system.
Lonnie Scott, Executive Director of Progress Michigan who uncovered this scandal released this statement:


What was said between Muchmore and Heyns that caused him to ‘tone down his attack dogs’ and cancel fines to Aramark? Was the Snyder administration trying to hide problems with Aramark from the public? Heyns states that he was concerned about ‘losing control of a joint,’ proving that the Aramark contract is a threat to public safety. The governor needs to do more than just slap Aramark on the wrist. He needs to end the contract immediately to protect not just taxpayer dollars, but taxpayers themselves.
In light of the information we’re releasing today, it is even more troubling that Gov. Snyder has announced that he’s chosen an ex-public official who has already been embroiled in controversy to oversee the state’s Aramark contract. You would think the governor would want to avoid any future scandals at all cost given what has happened within his administration, but it appears that his allegiance to corporate profits and privatization is greater than than his commitment to the people of Michigan.
UPDATE: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer is calling for Gov. Snyder to release all of the emails related to Aramark being given a pass on its initial fine:

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer today accused the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder of lying to the people of Michigan about a $98,000 fine levied against the state's prison food contractor and called on Snyder to release an unredacted version of an e-mail exchange between his chief of staff and the prisons director.
Schauer, a former state lawmaker and one-term congressman from Battle Creek, also called on Snyder to immediately disclose whether Aramark Correctional Services of Philadelphia or any of its officials had donated to the New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify (NERD) fund, a Snyder nonprofit fund that accepted undisclosed corporate donations and which Snyder announced in October he was disbanding. [...]

Schauer said the redacted e-mail exchange shows a top aide to the governor pressuring a department director to give special treatment to a contractor.

He said after announcing the fine, the Snyder administration should not have let months go by without correcting the impression the fine was paid by Aramark.

“The governor has to take responsibility, through his spokespeople, for continuing to contend ... that Aramark paid a $98,000 fine,” Schauer said.
Also, in light of these revelations, Progress Michigan has released this truly excellent video:
Post Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:46 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Edwin Buss abruptly resigns as Florida prisons chief

By Steve Bousquet and Katie Sanders, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 7:05pm

TALLAHASSEE — Edwin Buss' ambitious effort to reform Florida's prison system abruptly ended Wednesday on the heels of a power struggle with Gov. Rick Scott and his staff.


2 Months Ago

Florida prisons chief says wrongdoing in his agency is limited to a few

3 Months Ago

The corrections secretary offered his resignation at a late-afternoon meeting in the Capitol with Scott and the governor's chief of staff, Steve MacNamara.

"He tendered his resignation and offered to help with the transition, and the offer was accepted," said MacNamara, whose strong-willed manner clashed with Buss' independent style.

Buss declined to comment.

Within minutes, Scott named Ken Tucker, a career law enforcement officer and deputy commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as chief of the nation's third-largest prison system, promising even more upheaval for prison employees still adjusting to Buss.

A soft-spoken U.S. Army veteran, Buss seemed unprepared for the amount of scrutiny legislators, interest groups and media give to Florida's prisons, which have a legacy of controversy and scandal. He also said he had more autonomy in his previous job as chief of prisons in Indiana.

Buss, 45, ran afoul of Scott aides on two recent issues.

He did not let the Governor's Office review a health care privatization contract worth up to $400 million before posting it on the agency website. The contract stipulated that health care vendors must be accredited by the American Correctional Association, whose director, James Gondles, is the husband of Betty Gondles, the consultant Buss hired to prepare the contract.

Under pressure from Scott's office, Gondles ended her $180,000, 10-month consulting job Wednesday.

Buss also signed a deal with MSNBC to tape six episodes of its Lockup series in Santa Rosa Correctional Institution without letting Scott's attorneys review it. When the Governor's Office moved to cancel the contract, the prison system answered with an e-mail showing Scott's aides knew of the TV deal in April, but by then the contract was signed.

Ironically, Scott's lawyers approved the MSNBC contract hours before Buss resigned.

"Differences in philosophy and management styles arose which made the separation in the best interests of the state," a statement from Scott said.

It was a dramatic turnaround from just eight months ago, when Scott's team found itself locked in a bidding war with Michigan for Buss, who built a national reputation as an innovator and cost-cutter while running Indiana's prisons.

Buss was paid $145,000 to manage 144 prisons and more than 27,000 employees, making him one of Scott's highest-paid agency heads. He was as enthusiastic about the challenge of reforming the agency as he was aghast at the decrepit condition of some of the state's older prisons.

"They're ready for change," Buss said of prison workers last month.

Buss advocated more compassionate treatment of inmates by expanding re-entry programs; eliminating smoking and pornography in prisons; closing prisons in Brevard and Hendry counties; and pushing for 12-hour shifts for corrections officers to give them more weekends off.

He also recruited a dozen top-level assistants from his former state of Indiana, where he began his career as a correctional officer.

The leader of the Florida prison guards' union, Matt Puckett of the Police Benevolent Association, said Scott should be embarrassed by the way Buss was treated.

"What kind of message does it send about Florida's work environment that a nationally recruited talent would be forced out after six months?" Puckett asked. "I guess everybody makes mistakes. He (Buss) only got to make one."

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who oversees a Senate panel on prison spending, said the agency's history of suspect dealings in bids and contracts may have sealed Buss' fate.

"I'm not surprised that the secretary resigned after what was disclosed," Fasano said. "If he wasn't well aware of it, that disturbs me even more."

Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said he was saddened to hear of Buss' quick departure. "Many of us in the Legislature were excited about what we thought was going to be a policy shift away from 'bare and naked' incarceration to rehabilitation and re-entry," Rouson said.

Buss first revealed his lack of political savvy in March when he proposed shutting down Hillsborough Correctional Institution in Riverview, the state's only faith-based prison for women.

HCI was too costly to run, Buss' team said. But the prison enjoyed a cohesive and vocal network of local advocates, many of them retirees from Sun City Center, who successfully lobbied to keep the prison open.

Buss' mission became more complicated in May when the Legislature ordered him to privatize all 30 prisons in an 18-county region of South Florida, and to get it done in just six months.

The privatization has provoked massive anxiety as it threatens to end the careers of thousands of state prison workers.

Recently, Buss and his aides discovered they will have to pay up to $25 million to those employees for unused vacation and sick leave and accumulated compensatory time. Buss' chief deputy, Dan Ronay, said that unforeseen expense could "cripple the agency."

Tucker, 56, now inherits the privatization ventures and must oversee the execution of Manuel Valle — scheduled for Sept. 6 — the state's first execution in a year and a half.

Buss is the second agency head to leave prematurely in Scott's young administration.

Former state Rep. Carl Littlefield of Dade City resigned under fire from legislators in February after he was appointed to run the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Littlefield faced questions about lax oversight and allegations of sexual abuse at a Hillsborough County group home he supervised.

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or (850) 224-7263.

Edwin Buss abruptly resigns as Florida prisons chief 08/24/11 [Last modified: Thursday, August 25, 2011 12:12am]
© 2014 Tampa Bay Times
Post Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:50 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Unanswered Aramark Questions
PROGRESS MICHIGAN


October 21, 2014
Hugh Madden



As you’ve heard by now, Gov. Rick Snyder’s contract with Aramark has been a disaster and is a public safety concern for Michigan residents. Despite all we know, including drug smuggling, a murder-for-hire plot and sexual romps, we still have questions that need to be answered.
1.Dennis Muchmore and Dan Heyns discussed cancelling the $98,000 fine in March. What did Gov. Snyder know and when did he know it regarding the cancelled fine?
2.Why hasn’t leadership in the state legislature held any hearings into the Aramark scandal?
3.The Department of Corrections issued a press release covering for Aramark. Was the Department pressured by the Snyder administration or Aramark to issue the release?
4.Dennis Muchmore asked the Treasury Department to do him a favor and research the investment value of Aramark. Was this an official state function or a personal favor?
5.What happens to a worker that is ordered to stay away from our prisons? Are they still able to work for Aramark in our schools, with our seniors or at sporting events?

NOTE: We asked the Governor, top officials in charge of the Aramark contract and Aramark this exact question. For the sake of our students, seniors and families, I hope we get an answer soon.
6.Why does Gov. Snyder continue to defend Aramark while refusing to defend his own record of failure when it comes to public safety?

We will keep pressing the administration for answers because as taxpayers and citizens concerned about the safety of our children and communities, we deserve to know the truth.
Post Wed Oct 22, 2014 8:55 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

More scandal with for-profit prison food vendor Aramark, served raw meat to inmates

By Eclectablog on October 23, 2014 in Corporatism, Privatization, Rick Snyder


Gov. Rick Snyder may have thought the drumbeat of scandals with for-profit prison food vendor Aramark was behind him in the last two weeks of the election. But he was wrong.

A former Aramark employee has come forward to talk about serving raw meat and undercooked meat and meat-based food to inmates. Even after she brought the situation to the attention of Aramark officials, nothing was done. Well, something was done but not about the problem.

She was fired:


A fired Aramark prison food worker filed a whistle-blower complaint Wednesday with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, alleging she lost her job for complaining about falsified records and kitchen practices that endangered health and food safety.

Amy McVay, 25, was hired Dec. 3 as Aramark Correctional Services began its three-year, $145-million contract with the state of Michigan and worked at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian until she was fired by Aramark on Oct. 14. The stated reason for her dismissal was insubordination.

But in a Tuesday interview with the Free Press and in the complaint filed with OSHA through her Detroit attorneys, McVay alleges she was harassed and retaliated against for complaining about a lack of temperature monitoring in cooking; the serving of raw or undercooked meat; falsified records related to dishwater temperature and cleaning solution quality; the serving of meat that had been dropped on the floor; changing the dates on stored leftover food so it could be served after its throw-away date; suspected inflating of the count of meals served — part of the basis for which Aramark is paid by the state — among other issues. [...]

“Raw chicken, it can make people very sick, with the risk of salmonella,” said McVay, who has worked in other restaurant kitchens and whose father is a corrections officer at Gus Harrison.

“I started complaining to supervisors. They said, ‘This is a prison; not a five-star restaurant.’ “

If you click through to the Detroit Free Press article, you can watch video of McVay talking about the problems.

The attitude that it’s okay to serve meat that is contaminated or undercooked to prisoners because they aren’t in a “five-star restaurant” is disgusting.

Oh, and McVay isn’t the only person to come forward:


A second former Aramark worker, Tiffany Ely, 38, who worked in the kitchen at Pugsley Correctional Facility in Kingsley from Dec. 3 until she says she quit in disgust on June 16, independently told the Free Press about her experiences — the details of which matched McVay’s account with respect to ignoring required temperature monitoring and falsifying testing and records related to the required temperature of water used to wash dishes and utensils.

Ely kept records of complaints she made through an Aramark employee hotline and to the company’s human resources department, but said “nothing ever changed.”

The food practices upset Ely, who previously helped manage a restaurant, so much that “I was vomiting,” she said Wednesday. “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Aramark is claiming these are just the rantings of “disgruntled employees” and “another example in the long-running series of manufactured attacks against our company.”

Given that Aramark has had these same types of problems in at least two other states, complaints like this sound less and less like some sort of coordinated attack by low-wage disgruntled employees and more like a systemic and company-wide problem.

It really makes you ask how bad things have to get before Gov. Snyder pulls the plug on this failed experiment with privatizing essential government services to for-profit, private vendors who have more to gain by cutting corners than they, apparently, have to lose when they get busted when they violate the rules.
Post Thu Oct 23, 2014 4:23 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/11/12/prisoners-marquette-protest-aramark-food/18933107/


Prisoners in Marquette demonstrate over Aramark food



By Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press 7:42 p.m. EST November 12, 2014

Prisoners at the high-security Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula held a weekend demonstration over food complaints, a Corrections Department spokesman confirmed today.

About 40 inmates said Saturday they would refuse to leave the prison yard unless the warden met with them over complaints about the food served by Aramark Correctional Services, the Philadelphia-based company that took over prison food services from state employees on Dec. 8, corrections spokesman Chris Gautz said.

"Before the warden arrived, staff had talked further with the prisoners and they left the yard," Gautz said. "The prisoners agreed to give their grievances to their block (representatives) who then had a chance to speak with the warden about them."

Gautz said Warden Robert Napel at Marquette met with an Aramark official over the complaints but Gautz doesn't know the outcome of that meeting. Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the state's Aramark contract monitor, could not be reached for comment.


The $145-million, three-year contract, which displaced about 370 state employees, has been plagued with problems including food shortages, sanitation issues, smuggling of drugs and other contraband by Aramark employees, and incidents in which Aramark workers got too friendly with inmates and in some cases were caught engaging in sex acts with them. The attorney general's office is also investigating a case in which a former Aramark worker allegedly tried to hire an inmate to kill another inmate.

Gautz said the number of Aramark workers fired and banned from prison property has now reached 114.

Several demonstrations over food took place at Michigan prisons over the summer. In March, corrections director Dan Heyns said in a e-mail to a state official that some wardens were concerned about losing control of a prison over food issues.

Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization union for corrections officers, said prison unrest over food issue remains a concern, but many inmates are becoming resigned to what they are getting.

An ongoing concern is the much larger than normal amount of home-made alcohol being found in the prisons, Grieshaber said. He said the kitchen is the most likely source for moonshine ingredients.

Karen Cutler, a spokeswoman for Aramark, said "the warden discussed the concerns with our food services director," and "this happens routinely in correctional facilities."

"If the warden determines that the concerns are genuine, our team will work to respond appropriately," Cutler said.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
Post Sat Nov 15, 2014 1:51 am 
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