Investigators Scratching Heads Over Bullets in Prisoner's Breakfast Tray

A $145 million, six-year prison meals contract with Philadelphia-based Aramark expires in 2016. (Photo via Shutterstock)

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Michigan prison officials are flummoxed over how three bullets ended up in prisoner’s breakfast tray in the latest of a string of controversies surrounding Aramark, the private company under a $145 million, six-year contract for meal service at the state’s prisons.

The .22-caliber bullets were discovered inside a sealed breakfast tray before it was delivered to a prisoner’s cell in December at the 706-bed Ionia Correctional Facility, where some of Michigan’s most dangerous criminals are housed.

Inmates normally eat in a cafeteria, but some are isolated for security or health reasons, The Grand Rapids Index/MLive.com said.

State officials immediately launched an investigation into the mystery, but said Monday they’ve hit dead ends.

Corrections officers closely monitor inmates who, having earned special privilege under the prison trusty system, prepare and load the food on the trays, but it’s unclear if that’s where the bullets were put in the tray – or how they got into the prison to begin with.

“They were unable to determine responsibility for placing the bullets on the tray or the motive for doing it,” Michigan Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz said Monday.

The investigation has been turned over to the Michigan State Police, which is conducting tests on the bullets for DNA evidence or fingerprints.

The state has had a string of embarrassing problems – some of them resulting in criminal prosecution – with the Philadelphia-based prison meals contractor.

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• Prison Worker Poisoned by Crafty Inmate in 1893 Honored at 9/11 Memorial

In July, four female prison food-service workers were fired from their jobs after surveillance video showed they engaged in sexual dalliances with prisoners in a walk-in cooler at the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility. At the time, Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan said it was “unprecedented” for four workers at the same facility to be fired on the same day for the same offenses.

In June, about 30 inmates at the Parnall Correctional Facility complained of food poisoning after the discovery of fly larvae and maggots near the meal serving lines.

Also last year, an Aramark employee pleaded guilty to sneaking marijuana into the Jackson prison.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said last summer that he planned tighter oversight of Aramark, but dismissed the problems as “hiccups” in the first year of the privatization agreement, a step he said was necessary to reduce corrections costs.