November 18, 2003

Is Aramark Correctional Services, Inc. Serving Rotten Food to Florida Prisoners?

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.....

Click Here to see the joint press release issued November 7, 2003 by the Florida Death Row Advocacy Group (FDRAG) and Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP).

Subject: Per Father Mark Niznik
To: <fadp@fadp.org>

I have just spoken with Father Mark Niznik about the alleged incidents with foodservice to inmates on death row at two of Florida's correctional facilities and he suggested I contact you directly to correct the misinformation you may have received.

After receiving a call on Friday, senior staff within ARAMARK Correctional Services began looking into the allegations. That investigative work continued throughout the weekend. We found that not one inmate registered any complaints about foodservice at either of those facilities in the past several weeks. We simply cannot find the source of the information.

May I assure you that we take any allegations about our foodservices anywhere very seriously. If you have specific names and dates of incidents, I would be interested in seeing them. Other than that, I can assure you that we do our very best to provide the best foodservice possible to inmates throughout the US.

Debbie Albert
Associate Vice President
ARAMARK Corporate Communications
T: 215-238-3614
F: 215-413-8511
albert-debbie@aramark.com

NO COMPLAINTS?

Below are jpeg images of complaint forms submitted to the prison about the food. These forms include both the complaint by the prisoner, AND the RESPONSE from the prison officials back to the prisoner. These forms were received from prisoners by FDRAG in the past week or so (between Nov 12 and 17). When you click on one of the below images, it will be enlarged so that it can be read. Note that those with hand written responses (#1, #3, & #4) acknowledge the complaint and state that the problem won't happen again. The typewritten responses (#2 & #5) deny the problem. Our favorite is #4, in which the prison official wrote: "There will be no spoiled, sour, rotten food served from now on."

In any case, these are formal records of the Florida DOC. Why are Aramark's investigators unaware of these documents?