The innocent, the guilty, and the depraved were herded together, children and adults, men and women, given into complete control of practically irresponsible men whose sole object was to make the most money possible. The old Marriott Management Services was famous for its bad food, high prices and poor treatment of workers, and recent evidence from the company s failure to honor its agreement with the National Labor Relations Board to Ecoli outbreaks to the recent discovery of a human thumb part in a student s sandwich suggests that little has changed. The crucial difference, however, lies in what Sodexho Alliance does with the money it makes off students. Rather than simply investing in hotels or fast-food chains, Sodexho has become a leading investor, owner and operator in the global private prison industry. Not only is Sodexho the largest institutional shareholder in the infamous Corrections Corporation of America, but in September 2000, the company also expanded its holdings by acquiring U.K. Detention Services and Corrections Corporation of Australia.
Students have special reason to be concerned.
Hundreds of thousands of us are forced to do business with Sodexho Marriott as a result of required meal plans or exclusive contracts that enforce Sodexho s monopoly on campus. The track record of contemporary private prisons suggest that the same greed, inhumanity and incompetence characterizes the industry today. Private prisons tend to be poorly managed and largely unregulated, while private prison guards are underpaid, unorganized and minimally trained. As a consequence, mistreatment of prisoners and escapes are all too common. In Youngstown, OH, mismanagement at a CCA facility led to two murders and the escape of six maximum-security prisoners in broad daylight.