Paul Egan, Gannett Michigan

LANSING – An Aramark kitchen food worker is facing charges related to drug smuggling after five prisoners at St. Louis Correctional Facility were found with heroin, marijuana, cocaine and tobacco Monday, a Corrections Department spokesman confirmed.

In all, 39 packets of the contraband drugs and tobacco were found in a series of searches that followed an investigation, Russ Marlan told the Free Press.

An Aramark Correctional Services worker was turned over to the Michigan State Police and is expected to face charges, Marlan said.

Karen Cutler, a spokeswoman for Aramark, had no immediate comment when reached late Monday.

The incident at St. Louis Correctional Facility is at least the second incident in which an Aramark employee has been caught smuggling drugs into a Michigan prison since the Philadelphia-based company began a three-year, $145-million contract in December.

In March, an Aramark worker was caught trying to smuggle bags of marijuana into the G. Robert Cotton Facility near Jackson. He pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

"It's tragic," said Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization. "I don't care if it's public employees or private employees, this is the kind of thing that we're always concerned about."

Prisoners in "altered states" are more dangerous, Grieshaber said.

Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Corrections Department, said smuggling "is something we combat on a daily basis," and "we have witnessed the attempted entry of contraband through our own staff, contracted employees, visitors, volunteers and other methods.

"Our staff does an excellent job everyday of tracking, thoroughly investigating and preventing this type of thing from occurring," he said.

The privatization of Michigan's prison food service, which eliminated 370 state jobs and is expected to save about $14 million a year, has been plagued with problems.

Related:State releases redacted e-mail in Aramark controversy

The Free Press has written a series of articles, some of which were based on thousands of pages of records obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, documenting meal shortages, unauthorized menu substitutions, prisoner unrest and overfamiliarity between Aramark workers and prisoners, including sex acts.

The Corrections Department fined Aramark $98,000 in March, but last week officials confirmed the fine was suspended and Aramark never had to pay it. In August, Gov. Rick Snyder announced a new $200,000 fine against Aramark for contract violations, which Marlan said the company has paid.

Earlier:

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com