State sticks with Aramark for prison food

Despite issues ranging from maggots reported in food to employees having sexual contact with inmates, Ohio has rehired Aramark to feed prisoners because it's cheaper.

Prisons director Gary Mohr on Tuesday directed the Department of Administrative Services to move forward with renewing the contract with Aramark to continue providing about 136,000 meals a day. The decision came after a panel said the union's plan would cost $17.4 million more than it had projected and would be more expensive than Aramark.

The Pennsylvania-based vendor came under fire last year in both Ohio and neighboring Michigan for maggots in food, high turnover due to contraband being taken into the prisons, and inappropriate relationships with inmates.

Despite those issues, Mohr in October authorized the Department of Administrative Services, which oversees contracts for the state, to send notice to Aramark that the state intended to renew the contract, which expires at the end of this month.

In February, the Ohio Civil Services Employees Association thought it finally had a proposal that would beat Aramark. The state saved $13.3 million last fiscal year and was anticipating to save another $16.9 million this year by going with Aramark.

"Considering that the OCSEA proposal basically involves rebuilding a food services system from scratch, the decision to transition into a new internal venture that must be effective, efficient, economic and expeditious will not be one that can be based on the very limited information and speculative cost estimates that OCSEA has provided in its proposal," Robert Blair, administrative services director, wrote in a Monday letter to Mohr.

Union President Christopher Mabe criticized the state in a news release, saying the union's proposal didn't get a "fair or serious analysis."

"We believe this was a deliberate attempt to ignore our proposal, because we were clearly the cheaper option. ... The union will be looking at all its options moving forward including through legal channels and the contract grievance process," Mabe said.

State officials attempted to get a third party to review the proposal, but the consulting firm tapped declined, prison spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said.

As a result, the Department of Administrative Services' assistant director and three others — food service directors at Ohio State University and Ohio University as well as a former prisons director, Reginald Wilkinson — reviewed the proposal.

The panel concluded that the union proposal underestimated the cost for purchasing food by about $27 million and also didn't include the recently approved 2.5 percent wage increase, which would cost about $4.4 million over two years. The panel also criticized the union's idea of selling alternative menu items, such as subs and hot dogs.

Ultimately, it determined per meal costs would be about $1.53 compared with Aramark's $1.28.

The union contends the assertions made about the proposal are inaccurate, citing the food costs as being from current food menus rather than what was used in 2012 when the state last purchased its own food and the figure the panel used to estimate food costs.

Ohio fined Aramark twice last year for a combined $272,200 for contract deficiencies. However, the state is permitting Aramark to receive credit toward those fines for boosted employee training.

The company has shown slight signs of improvement — terminations have dropped from 96 in the first year of the contract to 77 in the second year, according to data from the department of corrections. The number of food-related grievances also has dropped from an average of 40 per month in 2014 to about 27 per month so far this year.

jison@gannett.com

Twitter: @JonaIson