Missing the Point, Deliberately

I could respect Governor Beshear standing up and saying, "There are problems with private contractors providing public services, but for political reasons, we have to hand millions in tax dollars to campaign-contributing corporations, so the Kentucky citizens who suffer from the criminal consequences will just have to suck it up."

That, at least, would be honest. But this kind of obvious lie is just insulting.

The controversy over the state's investigation of last year's riot at the Northpoint Training Center intensified Thursday when Gov. Steve Beshear chided lawmakers for “their continuing fixation with the menus for convicted criminals.''

At issue is the House Judiciary Committee's inquiry into the Aug. 21 riot that nearly destroyed the prison and whether poor food from a private vendor was a major factor — one that lawmakers believe the Beshear administration has tried to downplay.

On Wednesday, the Corrections Department released new information — after lawmakers threatened to subpoena it — showing that complaints about food had contributed significantly to the disturbance.

But the governor's statement Thursday advised lawmakers to “focus on our real problems,” including a looming budget shortfall, instead of “criminals who wish they could go to Wendy's.”

That surprised — and irritated — some lawmakers.

“The truth is we had a riot over there that's going to cost the taxpayers of Kentucky probably upwards of $10 million, and we need to find out what the hell happened,” said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg.

As I wrote last Thursday:

More than a year ago we started hearing complaints from Corrections employees about the horrible quality of the food provided by private contractor Aramark to the state's prisons.

The Aramark contract meant eliminating dozens of state jobs for cooks and other food service workers in the prisons, so we discounted the complaints as the usual state employee grousing.

Then the Northpoint prison erupted in riots and our sources were calling and saying "we told you so! just watch - they're going to hide the evidence."

SNIP

But this is much bigger than one major riot that destroyed an entire prison complex. This is the opening wedge that exposes how in department after department after department, experienced and efficient state employees are dumped in favor of sweetheart contracts with private companies. These companies rake in the taxpayer dollars to toss worthless crumbs to the citizens state government is supposed to serve.

How many millions of tax dollars are wasted on contracts for uneducated, untrained minimum-wage workers making do on a shoestring while company execs luxuriate in profit?

When people complain about "lazy state workers," they're really talking about the abused, non-union serfs employed by criminal private contractors. How many burnt-out prisons is it going to take to wake us up to the real price of private contracts?

When the Governor says "Aramark," you should hear "Blackwater." That's the truth.