Pay to Prey: Governors Facilitate the Predatory Outsourcing of America's Public Services
Maggots, drug smuggling, sex with inmates. As if the news were not already bad enough, shocking new allegations of a murder-for-hire plot are emerging from Michigan as the media digs deeper into that state's failed outsourcing of prison services.
In 2013, Governor Rick Snyder invited the Philadelphia-based for-profit company Aramark to take over food services in the state's prisons. The action was a 180-degree change in course, as the administration previously rejected all such bids on the grounds that none of the proposals would save the state money. The $570,000 Aramark spent on lobbying surely helped the company persuade the administration to change its mind.
Since Aramark took over Michigan's $145 million food service contract -- eviscerating the stable middle class jobs of some 370 public workers -- one stomach churning scandal followed another. The state fined Aramark $98,000 in March for food shortages, "unauthorized menu substitutions" and sexual relations between kitchen workers and inmates, and another $200,000 in August after problems persisted.
All the while, the Snyder administration has stood behind the company and the state prison director secretly waived the $98,000 fine soon after it was imposed. Perhaps Snyder will reconsider this position given new allegations that an Aramark worker has asked a prisoner to assist him with the murder of another inmate.
While Aramark's failed outsourcing of prison food services is a dramatic example of the harms that can arise from the America's public services and assets, this report, Pay to Prey: Governors Facilitate the Predatory Outsourcing of America's Public Services, contains many other cases of outsourcing run amok generating worse outcomes for the public, often higher costs, lawsuits and scorching headlines.
While large corporations are the winners in this scenario, all too often taxpayers are the losers when transparency, accountability and the public interest are sold out to for-profit firms.
Outsourcing of public services is a big business. Some experts estimate that $1 trillion out of the $6 trillion the federal government, together with state and local governments, spend annually are
- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/12620#sthash.E6XRsCK1.lkvOhUH9.dpuf
