Emails: Rodents Nibbled on Cake Given to Prisoners

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Inmates at a Michigan prison were served cake that rodents had chewed on under orders of an employee of Aramark, the private company under contract for meal service with the state’s Department of Corrections, according to emails obtained by the liberal Progress Michigan group.

The rodent-nibbled cake is the latest in a series of problems with the Philadelphia-based prison contractor, which in December began a controversial three-year, $145 million contract with the state that eliminated 370 state jobs.

Since then, the state has fined the company $200,000 for contract violations, and 100 Aramark employees have been fired for various infractions, including allegations ofsexual dalliances with prisoners, and banned from prison property.

The cake rodents nibbled on was reportedly served last July, and the employee involved was fired, according to the Free Press, whose series of articles of articles on sanitation issues led to increased scrutiny of the food-service contractor. Among them were allegations that prisoners reported food poisoning after maggots were found near the serving line.

Progress Michigan obtained the email exchange between officials at the Central Michigan Correctional Facility at St. Louis and the Armarck under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the exchange, an inmate was working in the kitchen when an Aramark employee allegedly ordered him to put frosting over the place where the rodent had nibbled and “serve cake that had evidence of rodents eaten from it.”

Related:

• 4 Prison Workers Caught on Video in Sexual Dalliances with Prisoners
• Prisoners Report Food Poisoning After Maggots Found Near Serving Line
• Investigators Scratching Heads Over Bullets in Prisoner’s Breakfast Tray
• Go Long to Get High? Drug-Stuffed Football Falls Short of Prison Yard
• Prison Worker Poisoned by Crafty Inmate in 1893 Honored at 9/11 Memorial

Corrections Department spokesman Chris Gautz said the cake was served, but he’s not aware of any illnesses that resulted.

The Aramark employee has since been fired, and a pest control specialist has been dispatched to the prison kitchen to eradicate rodents, according to the emails.

Karen Cutler, an Aramark spokeswoman,told the Free Press she was “not going to comment on an allegation from eight months ago that is one of hundreds of allegations made by special-interest groups against our company and our hardworking employees in Michigan.”

Cutler said “food safety is a top priority that we take very seriously,” and “our processes and procedures are industry leading, and if issues are raised, we fix them quickly.”

Progress Michigan said Gov. Rick Snyder and his administration should “use this opportunity to come clean about all the problems that they know of related to Aramark because the public has a right to know.”