SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) - A former food service worker at a prison in Michigan's Upper Peninsula tried to get a prisoner to orchestrate the assault of another inmate who he said had killed his relative, authorities announced Wednesday.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said 27-year-old former Aramark supervisor Michael R. Young was charged Tuesday with one count of solicitation to commit assault with intent to cause great bodily harm, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
"If you try to take the law into your own hands to exact revenge, there will be consequences," Schuette said in a statement.
It's unclear if Young has a lawyer. He's being held at the Chippewa County jail.
Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services has a three-year, $145 million prison food contract with the Michigan prison system. Its performance has been under scrutiny due to allegations of employee misconduct and food contamination. The company has said it's working to correct any issues.
"We have zero tolerance for criminal conduct and terminated this employee immediately when the allegations surfaced last year," Aramark spokeswoman Karen Cutler said in a statement. "The criminal actions of this former employee are completely inconsistent with our commitment to follow all laws and regulations everywhere we operate."
Schuette's office said Young was employed by Aramark at Kinross Correctional Facility in Chippewa County. In 2014, a Kinross inmate reported to the Michigan Department of Corrections that Young asked him to set up the assault at a different prison facility.
Word of an investigation at Kinross was announced in September. Young was earlier barred from entering any prison system facilities, MDOC spokesman Chris Gautz said in an email.
According to the Kinross inmate, Young told him that the other inmate was serving a sentence for the murder of one of Young's relatives and provided the inmate with details including the other inmate's name and prisoner number, Schuette's office said.
Young reportedly offered tobacco products to the Kinross inmate as payment, according to the attorney general's office. The Criminal Division of the attorney general's office investigated the case with help from state police and the Department of Corrections.
Published: Thu, May 21, 2015
