Well, Aramark started out good. This outfit is in 35 states so they must have some concept of what they’re doing. They are hamstrung of course by things we never knew about, i.e far fewer stoves and ovens necessary for a Carlos population of 1350. And, we had no idea Trinity would be so viscious and juvenile by throwing most of the trays in the trash.

Aramark can be excused for some of the bad roll-out, but they have to own blame for not having any kind of distribution strategy for the Units. They also should be taken to the woodshed for hiring the idiots from Trinity as their own workers. When a CEO (Thornell) fires a company because they’re incompetent (Trinity), the new company hired (Aramark) doesn’t hire the old companies’ employees, because you’ll get the same incompetence that caused the firing in the first place. Aramark was just too lazy to hire and train new personnel to take care of the new Arizona contract…..and they’ll live to regret it.

(Hot off the press interview with high-level Carlos kitchen personnel, that alleges these things. Story collaborated by inmate kitchen workers.–Ed.)

“Before Trinity left the Carlos kitchen after they were fired by Thornell, they left a little “gift” for their successors….. destruction of property! Trinity staff instructed the inmate workers to throw away gloves, aprons, hair nets, saran wrap, food, and TRAYS. Aramark came in with approximately 250 (exact count by Wednesday) food trays for 1350 women on Carlos Unit. That means that after 250 women are fed, the workers have to wash them and repeat, until the whole population has eaten. The additional washing plugged up the drain system in the floor, so nothing was being washed. This necessitated the additional expense of buying throw-away styrofoam trays to feed the inmates on.

Carlos kitchen only has 2 grills, 2 ovens, and 2 stoves….totally inadequate for this large population. How did Trinity do it? Two reasons 1) Only the poor and destitute went to the kitchen because the food was so horrible and it made them sick. 2) Trinity shipped food from Complex that just needed warming up, oatmeal was doused with hot tap water, but Aramark food needs actual cooking (what a concept)

For example, to make sufficient quantities of oatmeal the workers have to boil 36 pans of water….two stoves don’t cut it. Where Aramark falls down on the job, is waiting to ship food from Complex until the satellite units call in for it. The food should be waiting for them when they come in for work. In some cases the unit has to wait 2 hours for the truck to arrive from Complex. In the first week of Aramark’s reign on Carlos, there were two nights people stood in line until 8pm, and went home hungry.

On 10-6 dinner, about 6:20pm, Aramark ran out of chicken breast, so they started CUTTING IT HALF, and instead of sweet potatoes, they served cold regular potatoes. Where are the supervisors? Aramark doesn’t have one full-time at Carlos. The “white shirts” from Trinity are wearing Aramark blue, and doing the same nasty shenanigans they did before!

DW Jones, reportedly, comes in each morning Mon-Fri and “yells at the inmates to hurry up.” Allegedly, he never asks what the root of the problem is, and “refuses any input or suggestions from inmate workers”. One of the Trinity/Aramark workers named Price, is reported by the inmates as having ” anger issues” and “screams obscenities at them”. Yelling at women that are doing their best, under conditions totally out of their control, is only going to make broken women feel worse.

The Warden needs to straighten out Aramark and take charge of the situation. But then, staff is probably not telling her what’s really going on. (We know of a good blog she could subscriber to:-)