By Tony McVeigh
Frankfort, KY – A prison food deprivatization bill has cleared its first hurdle in the Kentucky General Assembly. The House Judiciary committee voted 9-4 for the measure, sponsored by Rep. Brent Yonts. Yonts blames lousy food for last year's riot at the Northpoint Training Center near Danville. But House Minority Leader Jeffrey Hoover, who voted against the bill, believes prison management was more to blame.
"You want to deprivatize the food service at a cost of 5.4-million dollars a year, when really I think the crux of the problem may be as much with management as it is with anything else."
Justice Secretary Michael Brown says it would cost the state 17-million dollars a year to take over prison food services. The state currently pays private contractors about 12-million dollars a year for that service.