Keefe: How can one company dominate?

In the March 15 issue of MIM Notes [issue 254] an Indiana state
prisoner wrote about Keefe Foods distributing company. I'm a federal prisoner and since 1993 I have often wondered how one company can virtually corner the market on commissary sales in the federal prison system across the U.$. I once asked my brother to look the company up on the Internet and find out exactly who owned it or who the major stock holders were. To supply all of the federal prisons', FCIs', camps' and detention centers' commissaries with food items such as coffee, hot sauce, peanut butter, rice, beans, jelly, etc. would seem to be a very lucrative contract.

I'm just surprised that a scandal hasn't broken out about that company such as the scandal that came to light about Vita Pro. Perhaps you'll be able to find out why that one company doesn't have any competitors.

-- a Federal prisoner in California, 16 April, 2002

I was reading an article in MIM Notes 254 Under Lock & Key called "Indiana prisoners fight price fixing" and I thought y'all might be interested in looking at the commissary list we have here in Bresoria County (Texas) Jail. As you can see, the prices are pretty damn
outrageous:

Noxema, 2.5 oz. $1.70
Pocket dictionary $4.09
Hot pot $18.59
Playing cards $3.13

[an Indiana prisoner submitted a complete new commissary price list as well, it includes these items:

VO5 shampoo & conditioner, 15 oz. $1.75 each
Acne lotion, 1 oz. $1.90
Ivory soap, 4.5 oz. $.65
Efferdent, 90 count $6.35
Sugar Twin, 100 ct. box $3.00
V-8 Juice, 11 oz. Can $.95]

An organization called the Federal Consumer Information Center
publishes a book called "The Consumer Action Handbook" and distributes it free of charge to anyone who requests one. It's got a pretty
sizeable list of agencies you can write who'll investigate scams like this. You can get a copy from:

Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 37594, Pittsburgh, PA 15250.

-- a Texas prisoner, 28 April, 2002

MIM adds: We looked the Keefe Commissary Network and its affiliate, Keefe Supply Company, up on the Internet. Both companies are part of the Centric Group, a holding company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in St. Louis, MO.(1) All of these companies are privately held, so their shares (stocks) are not traded in the public markets.(2) This means they are not obliged to publish information about who owns how much, or a great many other details about their business.

Keefe Supply Company was founded in 1975 and since then has become a model of the type of company that could only exist in a parasitic economy. The company individually packages products it does not
manufacture (Tang, Nescafe, the items listed above and more), and distributes them to prisons from 11 service centers spread around the country.

Keefe became popular with prisons by maintaining memberships in
national, state and county law enforcement associations. Some of these memberships include: American Correctional Association, Buckeye State Sheriff's Association, Georgia Wardens' Association, Mississippi Jail Association, Oregon Criminal Justice Association and West Virginia Association of Correctional Employees, to name a small handful. In other words, Keefe does business by shaking hands and slapping backs with the stormtroopers who run and work in the u.$. criminal injustice system.

We encourage prisoners to continue to write in with information about you experiences with Keefe, and any comparisons you can make between Keefe and other commissary supply companies.

http://www.stlbizdiversity.com/member_profile.asp?CompanyID=248
http://www.erac.com/recruit/free_enterprise.asp?navID=free&strFree=2 all other information from www.keefecommissary.net