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Snyder Administration Ends Privatized Prison Food Service

MPRN

(MPRN-Lansing) The state will end its troubled four-year experiment with using private companies for food services in prisons. 

Governor Snyder said contracts with two private vendors have not produced promised savings. And he said the current vendor wanted more money to renew the arrangement.

“I believe it’s appropriate to say that the benefits of continuing down that path don’t outweigh the cost, and that we should transition back to doing it in house.”

There were also continued problems with staffing, smuggling and other misconduct, and maggots in food storage areas. State employees will resume running food service in prisons starting in August.

Unions and Democrats were fiercely critical of the privatization effort. They say it not only failed to save taxpayers’ money, but also made prisons more dangerous.

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