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Florida Serving Rotten Food to Death Row Inmates

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Fri Nov 07, 2003 at 04:01:29 PM EST
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This makes us ill. Send an e-mail to Jeb Bush and tell him it turns your stomach too.

DEATH ROW PRISONERS COMPLAINING OF ROTTEN FOOD
Is Aramark in Violation Of Its Contract?

Reports coming out of Florida prisons indicate that portions have been cut, and more frequently, rotten food has caused prisoners hungry enough to eat it to become ill with symptoms indicating food poisoning.

Support groups for FL death row inmates have long been receiving messages about the food service suggesting sub-standard food, uncooked food, filthy trays, dirty utensils, foreign objects found in the food, food served at the wrong temperature, etc. Recent food poisoning incidents on death row might have been prevented had the prisons paid reasonable attention to the grievances which have been filed by the inmates, in accordance with Department of Corrections rules. However, the DOC chose to ignore such grievances, ostensibly on the basis that "because the food [mentioned on the grievance] had long since been discarded, no investigation [was] possible." While the DOC acknowledged the problem, no action was taken to investigate or remedy the problem.

The company under contract to provide food services to FL prisons is Aramark Correctional Services, Inc., a large PA based corporation which operates kitchen and commissary facilities in 325 correctional facilities in North America (as of 2002). According to the FL AFSCME website, in 2001, Aramark Corp. gave $42,000 to the GOP when Gov. Bush privatized prison food services. So far, Aramark has been fined $110,000 for serving spoiled meats and shortchanging services.

With the reports of food poisoning came reports that requests for medical treatment have been ignored or refused, once again indicating an unwillingness to deal with a problem which appears to be systemic, according to numerous complaints from both inmates and guards. It is difficult to understand why the DOC would apparently attempt to cover up for Aramark's failure to fulfill its contractual obligations, and accept unsafe food handling protocols within its institutions.

"The latest report we got was from death row, telling us the food stunk so bad that they could not eat it," said Hannah Floyd, of the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group. "These are human beings. They must eat. And recently they are being left with the choice to either eat and get sick, or go hungry to bed. This hurts not only the prisoners, but their relatives, and prison employees who then must deal with sick, hungry and angry people on a daily basis."

"If this is true, the Aramark needs to be held accountable," said Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. "They are not living up to their contract to provide quality food services on behalf of the State of Florida. Even if you think prisoners deserve whatever they get coming, it is the state that is responsible for punishing prisoners, and as far as we know, the Department of Corrections has not given Aramark a contract to starve and poison prisoners."

Members of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group are today calling on Governor Jeb Bush to investigate Aramark's poor record of providing substandard food services in Florida prisons, and to correct the situation immediately.

From Floridians Against the Death Penalty

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