Friday, April 18, 2014
COLUMBUS (AP) — The private food vendor that holds the contract for feeding Ohio’s 50,000 prisoners has repeatedly failed to meet the staffing levels it promised, the state announced today as it hit the company with $142,100 in fines.
Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services did not meet staffing requirements several times this year at three prisons, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in the letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Aramark also failed to meet the staffing requirement of a minimum of 414 positions called for in the contract, and failed to have a certified food service manager for several months at the state’s Southeastern Correctional Complex Hocking Unit in Nelsonville.
Aramark’s actions required prison staff to perform food service tasks at several meals, Stephanie Warner, associate legal counsel with the Department of Administrative Services department, said in the letter.
In addition, an internal audit at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville in central Ohio found incomplete documentation showing inmates received their prescribed diets.