County Taps New Private Contractor For Jail Commissary

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County Supervisors once lamented that a single company controlled all the food sales inside county correctional facilities. Soon that company, Aramark Correctional Services, will be out of the food business in county corrections entirely.

Aramark used to provide daily meal service and operate the commissary inside the Milwaukee County Jail and Community Reintegration Center (CRC). In 2023, the county replaced Aramark with Florida-based Trinity General Services for daily meal services, awarding the firm a contract worth approximately $34.5 million over five years.

Now the county is moving to bring a new company in to run the commissary: Dallas-based Union Supply Group, Inc. The commissary is where food stuffs and hygiene products can be purchased. In the past supervisors have criticized using a single company for both general food service and commissary, arguing it left the food service provider with no incentive to serve palatable food during the free daily meals.

In 2022, then supervisor Ryan Clancy led the push to oust Aramark, and favored replacing the firm with an in-house operation. At the time Aramark operated all of the food service and, according to Clancy, that was creating the wrong incentives.

“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,” he said.

Ultimately, the county did not bring the commissary service in-house and instead is contracting with another for-profit corrections company with Union Supply Group. But Aramark still has another six months of business left.

In July 2024, the county announced it’s plan to award the new contract to Union Supply Group. In December, the county administration sought a six-month extension of the Aramark contract to provide time to negotiate a new contract and transition the food service.

That contract has been finalized, and it includes a provision that will allow individuals incarcerated at the CRC to leave for work-release at the Union Supply Group warehouse in Menomonee Falls, earning the same hourly wage as regular warehouse employees. They may also have the opportunity to be hired by Union Supply Group for a full-time position upon their release.

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