Paul Egan

Detroit Free Press

Prisoners at the high-security Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula held a weekend demonstration over food complaints, a Corrections Department spokesman confirmed today.

About 40 inmates said Saturday they would refuse to leave the prison yard unless the warden met with them over complaints about the food served by Aramark Correctional Services, the Philadelphia-based company that took over prison food services from state employees on Dec. 8, corrections spokesman Chris Gautz said.

"Before the warden arrived, staff had talked further with the prisoners and they left the yard," Gautz said. "The prisoners agreed to give their grievances to their block (representatives) who then had a chance to speak with the warden about them."

Gautz said Warden Robert Napel at Marquette met with an Aramark official over the complaints but Gautz doesn't know the outcome of that meeting. Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the state's Aramark contract monitor, could not be reached for comment.

The $145-million, three-year contract, which displaced about 370 state employees, has been plagued with problems including food shortages, sanitation issues, smuggling of drugs and other contraband by Aramark employees, and incidents in which Aramark workers got too friendly with inmates and in some cases were caught engaging in sex acts with them. The attorney general's office is also investigating a case in which a former Aramark worker allegedly tried to hire an inmate to kill another inmate.

Gautz said the number of Aramark workers fired and banned from prison property has now reached 114.

Several demonstrations over food took place at Michigan prisons over the summer. In March, corrections director Dan Heyns said in a e-mail to a state official that some wardens were concerned about losing control of a prison over food issues.

Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization union for corrections officers, said prison unrest over food issue remains a concern, but many inmates are becoming resigned to what they are getting.

An ongoing concern is the much larger than normal amount of home-made alcohol being found in the prisons, Grieshaber said. He said the kitchen is the most likely source for moonshine ingredients.

Karen Cutler, a spokeswoman for Aramark, said "the warden discussed the concerns with our food services director," and "this happens routinely in correctional facilities."

"If the warden determines that the concerns are genuine, our team will work to respond appropriately," Cutler said.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.