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| Illinois Legislature Passes Bill to Ban Privatization of Prison Food Services |
| By NEWS-GAZETTE |
| Published: 05/20/2002 |
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The Illinois Senate voted May 7 to send Gov. George Ryan a bill banning privatization of prison food and commissary services. The House passed the ban earlier this spring. About 33 jobs at the Danville prison and several hundred positions around the state would be cut if a private company is hired to provide meals and commissary goods to inmates. The governor has not decided whether to veto the bill, Ryan spokesman Dennis Culloton said. State Sen. Judy Myers, R-Danville, said she voted for the ban because she questioned the governor's savings estimates. Myers also cited safety concerns because prison food service workers supervise inmates who have access to knives, open flames and other dangerous items and said privatization could hurt the vendors who currently do business with the prisons. Contracting out prison food services has worked well in other states and could yield some savings in Illinois, he said. The Department of Corrections only received one bid to take over dietary and commissary duties in the district that includes the Danville prison, corrections spokesman Sergio Molina said. No contract has been awarded to the company, Aramark Correctional Services, because of a temporary restraining order issued by a Grundy County judge, and bids have not been solicited for prisons in other parts of the state. The judge barred the department from awarding any contract while the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the state resolve a lawsuit over whether such action is already illegal under the state's private prison moratorium act. The legislation the Senate approved and sent to the governor would clarify the law by explicitly prohibiting private prison food and commissary services, said Bill Perkins, the union's political director. |
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