A new report just came out on privatized prison food, and if your loved one is eating from a state contract kitchen, you need to read this.
The company at the center of it is one you might know from stadiums and schools: Aramark. It’s one of the largest food service companies on earth, and it holds prison contracts across the country.
Here’s what the record shows.
Back in 2015, Aramark was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars by Michigan and Ohio after inspectors found maggots and vermin infesting prison kitchens and dining halls. Maggots. In the kitchens. Where the food is made.
This wasn’t one bad facility. It was a pattern across multiple states, and the fines kept stacking up: spoiled food, food served in unsanitary conditions, food that violated the basic dignity of people who can’t walk away and make themselves a sandwich.
And before anybody says “that was a decade ago,” last year detainees at the federal jail in Brooklyn — the same jail that has held some of the most high-profile inmates in America — reported being served food containing maggots in segregated housing. One man with a documented fish allergy was served fish anyway, over and over.
So here’s how the machine works.
The state pays a private company a fixed price per meal, per inmate, per day. That price is shockingly low. The company’s profit is whatever it doesn’t spend on food. Every penny shaved off the tray, every shortcut on freshness, every portion that gets a little smaller, goes straight to the margin.
Your loved one can’t complain to a manager. He can’t stop buying. He can’t choose a different vendor. He eats what’s served — or he spends his own commissary money, at inflated prices, to replace the meals his taxes already paid for.
The new report puts it in plain terms. Serving spoiled or contaminated food to people who cannot refuse it doesn’t just risk their health. It strips the dignity off people who are already suffering.
So ask yourself: if the state won’t feed them properly, and the company’s profit depends on not feeding them properly, who exactly is making sure your loved one gets a safe meal tonight?
Nobody. That’s the answer. Nobody is.
Ask your loved one what the food has been like lately. Really ask. Then come back and tell us what state you’re in and what he’s being served. Let’s build the map that nobody in charge wants built.
⚠ Share this with every family putting money on a books account just so their person can eat something safe. ⚠