Third Aramark prison worker suspected of drug smuggling

LANSING – A third Aramark prison food worker has been fired on suspicion of smuggling drugs into a Michigan prison, and the case is under investigation by the Michigan State Police, officials confirmed Thursday.

The kitchen worker at Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian was fired and banned from prison property on Oct. 3 on suspicion of smuggling marijuana into the prison, Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan said.

The case is under investigation and no charges have been filed yet, a spokesman for the Michigan State Police said Thursday.

“If this is true ... we consider it irresponsible and inappropriate to comment on an active police investigation,” said Karen Cutler, a spokeswoman for Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services.

The male Aramark worker from Gus Harrison is at least the third prison food worker fired and investigated by authorities on suspicion of smuggling drugs into state prisons since the Philadelphia-based company began its three-year, $145-million contract in December.

The contract has been plagued with problems and the state fined Aramark $200,000 in August for contract violations after earlier assessing — but then quietly waiving — a $98,000 fine against the company in March.

The contract displaced about 370 state employees and is expected to save the state more than $14 million a year. But Aramark has been under fire for meal shortages, unauthorized menu substitutions, sanitation problems, and instances of Aramark workers getting too friendly or engaging in sex acts with inmates. The Free Press, using the Freedom of Information Act and interviews, has documented problems with the contract in a series of exclusive reports.

In September, the newspaper reported the Michigan State Police were investigating an alleged murder-for-hire case involving an Aramark worker attempting to recruit an inmate hitman at Kinross Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula. That case is now in the hands of Attorney General Bill Schuette, with no charges filed to date. The worker was fired and banned from the prison in July, officials said.

As for previous drug smuggling case, Christopher Amando Mitchell pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court in March to attempting to smuggle two packages of marijuana into the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility near Jackson, where the 19-year-old worked for Aramark.

The Free Press reported in September that an Aramark worker was fired from St. Louis Correctional Facility, suspected of smuggling drugs, after five prisoners were found with heroin, marijuana, cocaine and tobacco. Word on the status of that case was not immediately available.

Cutler said the Corrections Department conducts background checks on Aramark job applicants and “based on that security clearance, tells Aramark if employees are approved for hire.”

Paul Egan is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press