County Moves to Replace Jails’ Food Provider

Milwaukee County Jail and Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County is looking for a contractor to provide food services for its three detention facilities: the Milwaukee County Jail, Community Reintegration Center and the Vel R. Phillips Juvenile Justice Center.

The current contractor, Aramark Correctional Services LLC, is on a month-to-month contract with the county. In March, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors approved at 8% price increase for the contract with Aramark, which had successfully negotiated the higher payment with the county, citing the effect inflation was having on food costs.

Aramark has been criticized for the quality of the food it serves in correctional facilities. The company and the county jail were sued in 2013 for serving something called “nutraloaf” that made an inmate seriously ill.

The county issued a request Wednesday for potential suppliers “interested in providing high-quality food service management for all aspects of the correctional food service program.” The successful bidder will have a two-year contract with the option to renew it three times for one year each. The county has stipulated in its request to potential contractors that it must implement programs at the CRC and the jail that “educate Residents about nutrition, healthy eating habits, and overall wellness;” and another at the CRC that provides “marketable job skills and training” that inmates “can use post-release.”

The food in the county’s correctional facilities has been much discussed by county supervisors in recent years. The board has debated the issue a number of times while reviewing proposals related to ending Aramark’s monopoly on food services, the price charged for commissary products and a proposal that could lead to insourcing the county’s entire food services program.

These proposed changes in correctional food policy have largely been led by Sup. Ryan Clancy. The last time Aramark’s contract was up for an extension, he tried to end what he sees as perverse incentives created by allowing one company to provide both regular meals and commissary service. “The existence of a monopoly at the CRC and jail means that Aramark, which is a private company has a vested interest in serving food which is so inedible and so terrible that they increase sales at the commissary,” Clancy previously said.

Clancy managed to attach an amendment to the legislation approving Aramark’s contract extension that asked for a plan and budget to bring food services in-house. The county’s RFP administrator said in March that the county is working on finding a consultant to help it plan an in-house food service program. Clancy contends that the food provided to people incarcerated by the county should not be a for-profit venture, as it currently is.

The supervisor said he would like to see a county-controlled program set up as soon as possible, but that he wouldn’t mind a “long runway” for its creation so long as the county is taking it. “I hope that we can do some harm reduction in the meantime,” he said, noting that breaking up the food service and commissary monopoly would be a place to start.

Earlier this year, the county’s procurement office said it was working on a formal search for a consultant that can help the county game out insourcing corrections services, which will be no small feat. The county regularly provides approximately 2 million or more meals a year to the people it incarcerates.

In the meantime, Clancy will continue to push to bring food services in-house. “Because they have that broader mandate to actually provide services rather than to generate profit, they can look at things differently,” he said.