County jail food service company disagrees with audit
The national company that provides food service to the Allegheny County Jail and Shuman Juvenile Detention Center is refuting two audits that found contract breaches and food disparities.
Trinity Services Group, based near Tampa, Fla., maintains that the audits produced by the Allegheny County controller’s office contain “quite a few inconsistencies” and “in some cases, complete fabrications,” a spokesman who did not want to be attributed by name said in a written statement.
The performance audits of both facilities released on July 20 by Controller Chelsa Wagner found “several instances of noncompliance” and cited overbilling for meals, “deficient” record keeping, including reassigning a salad bar meant for minors as staff-only, and missing commissions owed to the county for special “Trinity Take-Out” items that range in price from $10.99 to $18.29.
Shuman Director Richard Gordon and County Jail Warden Orlando Harper, along with Trinity Chief Operating Officer David M. Miller, were made aware of audits, each 17 pages, in letters sent on June 12 and June 5, respectively.
“[T]here’s still a lot to unpack in the report ... and we are currently doing so,” the Trinity spokesman said in an email Sunday.
“First, Trinity does not set the menu — we do prepare meals that are the right proportion, nutritional value, and temperature as stipulated by the County. In addition to being nutritious, these meals must cover a wide variety of medical and religious diets,” according to the spokesman.
According to the audit, minors at Shuman were served a vegetable substitute in place of a salad bar and the detainees were not offered additional servings, calling into question compliance with a Pennsylvania rule regarding food quantities.
The audit recommends that Trinity’s management “[e]nsure that written waivers of contractual requirements are obtained for contract requirements that it asserts have been waived by Shuman Center” and “[p]rovide a lower cost per lunch meal since the salad bar is not being offered to juveniles and is being prepared with fewer items for staff.”
The Trinity spokesman also took issue with the audit’s findings that the county was overcharged by $8,413 at Shuman, including just over $6,000 for donated U.S. Department of Agriculture food items, and that the county was overbilled at the jail by $1,663 for meals and underpaid by $1,226 for its 30% commission take on optional takeout meals for inmates.
“We have never charged for donated food but there was a timing delay to calculate and process the credit for the amount of the donated food,” the spokesman said.
In its July 15 response to the county, Trinity’s District Manager Richard Green said more detailed invoices and records of donated items were “to be developed.”
In a news release accompanying the audit, Ms. Wagner criticized the pricing of cheeseburger and chili cheese dog takeout meals that are offered for sale separately from breakfast, lunch and dinner as “extracting funds from often vulnerable inmates.”
“It’s terrible,” said Kimberly Andrews, 21, who spoke by phone from the Allegheny County Jail. “I have had four occasions where I stopped eating the trays period and just ate from the commissary.”
Ms. Andrews has been in the lockup for months, she said; she was charged May 28 with disorderly conduct, according to court records.
“The price for takeout is more expensive as the report alleges but the increased cost is because of sales tax and commissions paid to Allegheny County as required by the contract,” according to the Trinity spokesman.
Additionally, he added: “We provide procurement value to our clients through our innovative technology and bulk purchasing power from serving millions of meals nationwide. We also train inmates in skills like kitchen safety and prep and warehouse logistics — all to teach skills that help inmates gain meaningful employment once they leave, and, in turn, reduce recidivism.”
Among the audit findings were that the jail was not implementing the SafeServ certificate program as part of its vocational rehabilitation. Warden Harper responded on July 8 that the program would be implemented “in the very near future.”
Brad Korinski, chief legal counsel for the controller’s office, said Trinity’s latest response to the audit came as a surprise, as the company provided a 1½page response already attached to each performance review.
“I think it’s completely in bad faith to participate in a government audit process, submit a response letter that is attached to the audit and then after the fact manufacture various issues that weren’t part of the audit just to suit your message . ... I think that speaks to the type of company you are and the findings we found in our audit,” he said by phone Monday. “... For anyone critical of the audit, I’d like to know the last time they’ve eaten the same food as an inmate. I challenge them to a taste test.”
The Trinity spokesman said he plans to issue a more detailed response Wednesday or Thursday.