http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/12/1329208/-MI-GOV-SCANDAL-Snyder-admin-quietly-canceled-98K-fine-for-for-profit-prison-food-vendor-Aramark?detail=email
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?”we are seeing more and more corruption connected to republican governors at the expense of "we the people" incarcerated one's included, there is suppose to be things like cruel and unusual, there are laws in treatment of prisoners and this is clearly violating them. when convicted these corrupt politicians should go into gen. pop. and experience what they profited from first hand. under guard of course or they would be a statistic in minutes.
http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2008/02/msoc1-0802.html
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.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.this is beginning to read like the transcript of Christie corruption the bigger they are no pun intended the more people they involve and the greater the chance of exposure, that my friend is the republican audacity of arrogance.
