florida food info, interesting read

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Florida Department of Corrections
February 9, 2009 St Petersburg Times
Three times a day, the inmates at Madison Correctional Institution discover what a budget deficit tastes like. The scene in the prison chow hall in this quaint North Florida town is repeated across the state as it returns to in-house food service and struggles to cut costs. While the inmate population is growing, the Legislature is cutting spending in the nation's third-largest state prison system. Florida is now coping with the effects of a failed and expensive food-privatization venture of former Gov. Jeb Bush. In 2001, Florida turned over most prison food operations to Aramark Corp., even after Ohio had scrapped a similar experiment with bad results. After seven years marked by numerous irregularities, fines for sloppy service and a state report that flagged the vendor's "windfall" profits, Aramark pulled out of Florida prisons last month. The firm said it could no longer make money due to skyrocketing prices of bread, milk and other staples amid pressure from the state to cut costs. A second, smaller company also left: Trinity Services Group of Oldsmar had served meals at North Florida prisons, including Madison. Now that the vendors are gone, the privatization experiment is officially dead and the state must run an in-house meals program on less money amid the worst budget crisis in decades. In fiscal 2007-08, Florida paid two private vendors a total of $85 million. The current year's food budget is $76 million. Aramark's per-diem rate, or cost per day to feed an inmate, was $2.69. Now it's $2.12, which will force the state to make menu changes to save money.
December 23, 2008 Gainesville Sun
Florida's inmates will soon have a new chef in the kitchen. By the second week of January, all food served in state prisons will be prepared by state employees and inmates. The Department of Corrections is taking over in the kitchen after its two contracted providers, Trinity Food Services and Aramark Correctional Services, terminated their contracts to feed inmates. Both providers have told prison officials that inflation, especially rapidly rising food costs, was a primary factor in their decisions to end their contracts. The department is taking over at a time when the inmate population is growing significantly and the Legislature is cutting expenditures. The 2008 state Legislature cut the department's 2008-2009 food appropriation by $9.25 million to $76.5 million. When the Legislature met in the spring, the inmate population was estimated at nearly 89,000, but earlier this month topped 100,000 for the first time in state history. Prison contracts show Trinity pulled out of the prisons it was serving in November and Aramark will be out of all the prisons it has been serving by Jan. 12. Since beginning to assume control of the prison kitchens, the department has contracted with U.S. Food Services to provide food.
November 13, 2008 Palm Beach Post
A seven-year privatization effort for prison food services is officially over as the state begins taking over meal preparation in some prisons today. But Florida prison officials are unable to pinpoint exactly how much serving nearly 100,000 inmates will save taxpayers, or if it will at all. "We don't have a number right now," Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said this week. Corrections officials were ordered by the legislature this year to trim more than $9.2 million from their annual $83.9 million food services budget by cutting back on calories, changing the meal plan and allowing the two vendors to reduce staff. But prison officials were reluctant to implement reductions because they feared it could lead to inmate uprisings and endanger guards. After rebidding the food services contract and issuing an invitation to bid on just food, the department settled on a $77.2 million contract with U.S. Food Services to supply the food and take over cooking the meals and cleaning up in-house. Lawmakers have been looking for places to trim the state budget all year with as much as $3 billion less in revenue than expected. They could meet as early as next month for another cost-cutting session. "The days of 'trust me' and ask the legislature to just sign off on things are over. People are going to have to justify every cent that the public provides. If it saves money, I'm all for it. But everything's going to have to be proven," said Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, who served on the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee and was appointed Rules Chairman Thursday. Vendors Trinity Food Services and Aramark said they could not cut costs without changing the menu, something else prison officials were reluctant to do because studies show that meal changes create disturbances in prisons. Both Vendors Trinity Food Services and Aramark vendors gave notice this year sent letters to the department earlier this year giving officials notice that they were going to walk away from the contracts. DOC this summer reissued a bid food services and another for food products only. The cheapest bid for food services came from Philadelphia-based Aramark for $96.1 million, Plessinger said, nearly $21.5 million more than their revised budget allows. "We're looking at all of those numbers and we do believe it will come in under $96.1 million," Plessinger said of the new contract. Since signing a contract with the state seven years ago, Aramark has received mixed reviews. There have been questions about food quality, quantity and potential health violations. At times, the company has been fined by the state for failure to meet the specifications of its contract. The company now faces fines of more than $300,000 for violations. Trinity, which serves the region of the state from Madison to Flagler counties, will cease serving food today. Aramark will gradually withdraw from the rest of the state and will be out of the state's prison food business by mid-January. Taking back food operations is "quite unprecedented for a department of corrections," Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said. Prison officials they can cut the food price by altering the menu and making other cost savings quickly, Plessinger said. The department will realize 100 percent of the savings by changing the menu to cheaper items instead of splitting that with the vendors, she said. The plan includes having inmates grow more of their own food and training them as cooks, Plessinger said, part of DOC's efforts to prepare inmates for release. "We think this is going to be a win for everybody. First and foremost for Florida taxpayers because this is the best way for us to cut our food budget. It's also a win for our inmates because it's going to expand training programs for them," Plessinger said, while maintaining prison safety.
September 10, 2008 St Petersburg Times
Food service vendor Aramark soon will cut ties with Florida prisons, bringing to an end another privatization venture begun when Jeb Bush was governor. Hired in 2001 to replace a state-run food system, the company, often criticized by the state for cutting corners and maximizing profits, said it will stop serving meals Jan. 9. That leaves the cash-strapped prison system four months to find a new way to deliver food to the nation's third-largest prison population, which has more than 92,000 inmates. Aramark told the Department of Corrections on Tuesday that it will invoke a 120-day termination clause in its contract. The company cited "unprecedented" inflation in food costs and a poor working relationship with the state. "We have been unable to achieve the type of partnership consistent with our expectations for a positive long-term relationship," wrote Tim Campbell, president of Aramark Correctional Services. The stormy seven-year tenure between the Philadelphia-based food giant and the Department of Corrections has deteriorated in recent months. This year alone, the state fined Aramark $261,000 for violations ranging from long lines to excessive substitutions of menu items. Food in prison isn't just a necessity. Many corrections experts consider it a key to keeping inmates under control and to avoiding lawsuits alleging inhumane treatment of prisoners. "Food really becomes a security issue for us," Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil said recently. He complained of Aramark cooks substituting lower-quality ingredients for beef or turkey. Under pressure by the state Legislature to cut costs by $9.3-million without sacrificing quality, McNeil last month invited other vendors to submit bids in hopes of finding a company willing to earn less. A review last year by the prisons' inspector general found that Aramark earned a "windfall" because it was allowed to serve cheaper ground turkey instead of real beef, and was paid based on the number of inmates, and not on the actual number of meals served. The report urged a rewriting of the contract or restoring food service to an in-house operation. "The state rushed into it, and like most shotgun weddings, the marriage has been pretty tortured," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
May 12, 2008 Palm Beach Post
One of the two companies that feed state prisoners has racked up nearly $250,000 in fines since the beginning of the year for violations including not having enough food and staffing shortages. That brings the total fines for Aramark to more than $864,000 since 2001 when the state hired private companies to take over feeding the more than 92,000 inmates in Florida prisons. More than $300,000 of Aramark fines have been rescinded by the Department of Corrections. Corrections officials are questioning Aramark's ability to provide quality food in sufficient quantities. The officials also say they are concerned about the company's staffing levels. "We have certain standards regarding foods for inmates that we're not prepared to see relaxed. We want to make sure they jibe with our standards," Corrections Chief of Staff Richard Prudom said of Aramark, which is negotiating a new contract with the state. One recent concern was an outbreak last month at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution where almost 300 inmates became ill. The cause of the illness remains under investigation and no one is blaming Aramark, but corrections officials have not ruled out that the food caused the illness. Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis said the food was not the cause. "There are a lot of different reasons why inmates, especially in close quarters, can get ill," Jarvis said. "It can be close quarters. It can be sewer systems." Corrections officials took the trays and tested them and stool samples of inmates for food poisoning, Jarvis said, and the results were negative. Corrections officials said Monday they have not received the results and the investigation is ongoing. Aramark has been fined for running out of food, not having enough staff and diverging from the meals agreed to in its contract with the state, according to DOC records. The department let Aramark off the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines under former Corrections Secretary Jimmy Crosby, now in prison for taking kickbacks from contractors.
March 29, 2008 Palm Beach Post
Mushy bland broccoli stems accompanied by a greasy mystery meat endowed with undercooked rice is as good as it gets for inmates behind bars. But, according to the vendor who provides the food and some lawmakers, that's still too good. They want to cut as much as $11 million from prison food contracts as part of an effort to pare about $3 billion from next year's state budget. Prison officials fear that cutting the food budget will lower the quality of meals that are already bland and cause unrest among inmates. Anger about meals is the No. 1 reason for inmate uprisings, according to corrections officials, and menu changes imperil safety for prison guards, inmates and the public in general. "We think any reduction to (the current menu) that is not a change for health reasons poses a risk to public safety," said Department of Corrections Chief of Staff Richard Prudhom. "It may sound overly dramatic, but we strongly believe that." The state pays nearly $79 million per year to two food service vendors - Philadelphia-based Aramark and Oldsmar-based Trinity Services Group Inc. - for the bulk of the food that is purchased for Florida's more than 92,000 inmates. The state now pays $2.67 for three meals a day for each inmate. Lawmakers in the House want to reduce that cost to $2.30 a day. Aramark representatives have convinced some lawmakers that the state can save millions by reducing calories fed to inmates. The company wants to go back to a menu it once served that prison officials say was unacceptable. While the current menu is better then the old one, some inmates still complain about the food. "I don't eat it. I just come here to give it away," Calvin Mayes, an inmate at Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello, said after a lunch of Spanish rice and broccoli. Instead, he spends about $150 a month at the prison canteen to buy food. "The quality of the food is substandard," said a relative of an inmate at Marion Correctional Institution in Lowell, who asked not to be named because she feared retaliation against the prisoner. "The preparation is haphazard. They're supposed to wear hairnets and gloves. You find hair in your food and you find a Band-Aid in your food. Things are so overcooked it's mush, or it's not cooked at all." Sen. Tony Hill recently asked the legislature's Joint Auditing Committee to conduct an investigation into the Aramark contract, and Aramark spokeswoman Sarah Jarvis confirmed that the state auditor general is also looking into it. "When you've got people boycotting the food altogether, that's a problem," said Hill, D-Jacksonville. Some inmates, like Donald Jones, say the food is the best it has ever been. But food quality is less important to some lawmakers than saving money for taxpayers. The Senate has proposed slicing $6 million from the current prison food budget, while the House wants to cut $11 million. "We're talking about substantial savings," Jarvis said. "They way the savings come about is by making better use of the ingredients served. For instance, replace French toast with pancakes." Jarvis said that Aramark's spending for food has tripled since the initial contract was established in 2001. Aramark wants to do more than change the menu. The company also is proposing cutting back on the number of workers it provides prisons, shifting the responsibility to corrections officials. Guards would have to fill in, posing a problem for an already understaffed corrections system that could lose 1,800 guards under the Senate proposal, according to corrections officials. Since signing a contract with the state seven years ago, Aramark has received mixed reviews. There have been questions about food quality, quantity and potential health violations. At times, the company has been fined by the state for failure to meet the specifications of its contract. Critics suggest the proposed new contract is really an attempt by Aramark to make more money by paying less for food. The company is paid not by the number of meals consumed but by the number of inmates. If fewer inmates eat the food, Aramark can save money by providing less food. In February, Aramark-served institutions had an 85 percent participation rate of inmates eating the company's meals. Trinity, which serves food to about one quarter of the state's inmates, had a 97 percent participation rate. A state audit of the Aramark contract last year found that the participation rates equated to a "windfall for the vendor" and that Aramark substituted low-cost foods, such as turkey instead of beef, without passing the savings on to the state. Aramark representatives and corrections officials both say those problems have been resolved. Trinity this month canceled its contract with the state, giving it until August to renegotiate because, the company claims, it is losing money on the deal. Corrections officials said they will meet with Trinity and Aramark next week to discuss their contracts.
February 16, 2008 Miami Herald
Sweat dripping from his brow, union representative Bruce Raynor promised a crowd nearing 100, including two state lawmakers, that he wouldn't rest until food service provider Aramark is stripped of its contract with the Florida Department of Corrections. At