Dispute Over Price Of Prison Meals Draws Scrutiny Of Tennessee’s Inmate Labor Agency

An accounting dispute is threatening Tennessee’s prison labor agency.

State auditors say the organization, TRICOR, was misleading about how much money it was getting to prepare meals for inmates.

Officials from TRICOR, the agency that puts state prisoners to work, acknowledged at a hearing Wednesday that they had failed for more than a year to tell lawmakers and members of their own board about a long-running dispute with their main partner, the Tennessee Department of Correction.

The confession came after an audit by the state comptroller showed TRICOR spent $3.1 million more to make prison meals than it was paid. The audit also said TRICOR’s management hid the deficit during last year’s budgeting process.

State Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, said such findings could ruin a private company.

“You know, being a CPA myself, I’m stunned. I’m completely stunned,” Roberts said. “And this goes beyond carelessness.”

State officials set up TRICOR two decades ago to employ and train inmates before their release. The agency works much like a separate company, getting paid by the prison system to do things that otherwise would be done by a contractor or the department itself.

But like other state agencies, TRICOR has to ask lawmakers to renew its charter every few years. That process includes a state audit.

The latest audit notes that TRICOR had not accounted for an ongoing dispute with the Department of Correction over how much it should be paid per meal prepared through its Cook Chill program. The agency had been supplying the prison system without a formal contract, and the department balked when TRICOR asked to raise prices.

TRICOR not only lacked a way to communicate to senior managers how much it was losing during the dispute, but the agency also assumed the Department of Correction would eventually agree to its terms while drawing up its budget. It also didn’t tell state lawmakers about the problem during hearings on the annual spending plan.

Patricia Weiland, TRICOR’s chief executive, laid some blame on the state’s bookkeeping software. She said even she wasn’t aware of the full extent of the dispute with the Department of Correction until recently.

But she said the agency has taken steps to address the problem, including replacing its chief financial officer.

Lawmakers at the hearing asked for more. They recommended extending TRICOR’s charter for just one more year, after which the agency would need to show improvements or risk termination.