On Monday, January 13th, Indiana prisoners being detained in Westville Correctional Facility began to refuse the nutritionally deficient, unappetizing cold sack lunches they have been forced to endure over the past several months and have issued a call for solidarity. A mass call-in, starting at 8am on Tuesday, January 14th, is being planned to put pressure on IDOC officials and Aramark Correctional Services to reinstitute hot lunch trays.
Why is this happening?
According to “official” sources, the switch to sack lunches was a 90 day test program launched in response to a prisoner’s request to increase recreation and shower time. Overlooking the absurd proposition that a prison would change its food policy based on a prisoner request for extended recreation time, the fact is that since the conversion to sack lunches, recreation and shower time have not increased, and the 90 day trial period has long since passed.
The truth is more likely to be found in the bottom line and Aramark’s business history. In 2005, Aramark Correctional Services (ACS) signed a quarter billion dollar, ten year contract with the Indiana Department of Corrections to provide meals for inmates. Since then, Indiana DOC has saved more than $11 million a year, spending approximately $1.19 per meal/per prisoner. In other states these savings have been achieved as a result of skimping on food portions and quality. In Florida, an audit of ACS found the company was cutting costs/increasing profits by cutting portions on meals. In Kentucky, similar skimping on portions coupled with a decrease in the quality of food led to food riots in 2009. During the investigation that followed, Aramark refused to provide Kentucky auditors with access to its records, making a claim to their proprietary rights and confidentiality.
Here in Indiana, prisoners are reporting a reduction in portions in everything from peanut butter portions to chicken patties, in the discontinuation of fresh fruit in disciplinary units, and in the replacement of meat with pasta covered in “liquid gravy” or chili composed of “pink slime.” To complicate matters, and make accountability more difficult, different Indiana prisons, and different areas within those prisons, are all receiving different portions and meals. This is Aramark’s mark of business as usual. Let’s let them know we are watching.
On Tuesday, let’s show solidarity and inundate IDOC Commissioner Bruce Lemmon (317) 232-5171 and Aramark Correctional Services (800) 777-7090 with phone calls demanding the return of hot lunch trays for Indiana prisoners.
Write indianaprisonersolidarity@gmail.com with questions or solidarity reports.