The following essay was written by Mitchell Robinson and is cross-posted on his most-excellent blog at MitchellRobinson.net. Robinson is associate professor and chair of music education, and coordinator of the music student teaching program at Michigan State University. Follow Mitchell on Twitter at @mrobmsu. His essay is reposted here with permission. Enjoy. A new report from the Justice Department recommends […]

Once upon a time, Michigan prison kitchens were run by state personnel. Because of this, the kitchens were excused from what was seen as redundant inspections by another government agency. However, with Gov. Snyder’s ongoing experiment in outsourcing and privatizing every government service that he possibly can, our prison kitchens are now run by private, for-profit corporations that are beholden […]

For-profit prison food vendor Aramark is back in the news again with revelations that its employees served food that had been in the trash and were rinsed off, reheated, and served to inmates. Aramark has a long history of patently absurd violations of state rules and, frankly, the norms of society, all of which have been documented here at Eclectablog. […]

Most of the time, when I read stuff slithering out of the Mackinac Center’s propaganda arm Michigan Capitol Confidential, I just shrug it off with a Reaganesque, “there they go again”. But every once in a while their effluvium is so nonsensical that it makes me read and reread it again to make sure that it isn’t something coming from […]

This post has been updated. 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 […]

Food vendor employees having sex with prisoners. Maggots in the food service areas. Prison food shortages. Scores of employees banned from prisons. I’ve written about all of this and more about the for-profit prison food vendor Aramark in Michigan. But the scandals here are not the only scandals Aramark is facing. They are on the hot seat in Ohio for […]

First, let’s recap where we are regarding private for-profit prison food vendor Aramark: Sex scandals. Passing drugs to inmates. Running out of prison food. Maggots in prison food. MORE maggots in prison food. And now more sex scandals. All of this from one for-profit vendor for food in Michigan prisons: Aramark. In all, over 80 of their employees have been […]

Sex scandals. Passing drugs to inmates. Running out of prison food. Maggots in prison food. MORE maggots in prison food. And now more sex scandals. All of this from one for-profit vendor for food in Michigan prisons: Aramark. In all, over 80 of their employees have been banned from Michigan prisons because of inappropriate conduct. Here’s the latest: In a […]

This is getting ridiculous First we had dozens of employees from for-profit prison food vendor Aramark banned from prisons for inappropriate contact (sex) with prisoners, smuggling things and selling drugs to inmates, and other infractions. Then Aramark was cited for running out of food before all prisoners were fed. Then dozens of prisoners got sick with what looks like food […]

Last month I wrote about how for-profit prison food vendor Aramark Correctional Services has routinely runn out of food to serve to the inmates in the prisons where food service has been outsourced to them. Now we learn that maggots have been found in the serving areas of at least one of the prisons where they work: About 30 prisoners […]

There are four things that, in my opinion, should NEVER be put in the hands of for-profit corporations: healthcare, education, national security, and prisons. Why? Because when a profit motive is involved in anything, corners will always be cut in order to enhance the profitability of the enterprise. And, in these four situations, that means the lives of actual living […]