A revised commissary contract the Adams administration said would protect Rikers Island detainees and their families from excessive charges has instead locked in many prices that are substantially higher than those at local stores, a survey by THE CITY shows.
Under a provision of the revised contract carried over from the original signed during the pandemic, the commissary vendor, the Miami-based Keefe Group, is prohibited from charging the 6,700 people behind bars and their friends and family members more than nearby grocery stores and supermarkets do for the same products.
The prices listed on the shopping website during the original $13-million no-bid contract with Keefe — such as $3.62 for a single-serve cup of Cheerios or $4.41 for a small package of pasta and sauce — were exposed by THE CITY in 2023 as up to 50% higher than those in local stores.
Under the revised $33 million contract, which the Department of Correction touted as including protections against inflated charges, Keefe still charged more — sometimes twice as much more — for nine of 16 items at every local store THE CITY surveyed and on Instacart, which the contract also names as a benchmark.
Family members or friends who use a Keefe service to buy a cup of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for someone at Rikers would pay $3.79. At the two Trade Fair and Food Bazaar supermarkets THE CITY sampled in Queens neighborhoods near the bridge to Rikers Island, the same item costs $1.59. The item costs $1.69 at a local Associated market as sold on Instacart.
Illustrations compare prices of items found in the Rikers Island commissary with the cost of the same product at local stores and Instacart.
Buyers purchasing food for people held on Rikers are charged $4.41 for a package of Knorr stroganoff pasta, while the price at the Lidl grocery store in Astoria is $1.55, nearly three times lower than Keefe’s price. The packages cost $2.49 at Trade Fair supermarkets located in East Elmhurst and Astoria, 77% lower than the jail price.
“In prisons and jails where there’s literally a captive market you can charge whatever you want and use whatever excuse you want,” said Bianca Tylek, the executive director of Worth Rises, a nonprofit focused on high fees charged to incarcerated people.
“The prices that we’ve seen across the country don’t track with inflation.”
Colliding Contract Clauses
The price disparities arise from conflicting provisions in the revised 167-page contract, which, like the original, the Department of Correction awarded without competitive bidding.
One provision dictates prices for more than 100 items that can either be purchased at the Rikers commissary by detainees or by others for them through an online Keefe delivery service called Securepak. The other states that what Keefe charges “shall not exceed the fair-market prices of the same items in local New York City area convenience stores, including Instacart supermarkets, during the same calendar year.”
THE CITY conducted its survey after a Department of Correction official testified before the City Council late last month that the contract had curbed high prices charged under the commissary agreement, which was signed during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Illustrations compare prices of items found in the Rikers Island commissary with the cost of the same product at local stores and Instacart. Credit: Mia Hollie
Speaking of the price disparities discovered by THE CITY in 2023, James Conroy, the department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, told the Council, “We had done and had continued to do pricing comparisons. There were members of the staff who were dedicated to this task. We did not see those levels of price discrepancies.”
But he told the Council he did not have information at hand that identified which businesses they surveyed or when they visited.
At the Council hearing, Conroy said that the department has rarely heard complaints from people in custody about delivery issues, poor product quality or prices.
All told, not even 1% of the thousands of orders each year end with some type of grievance, he asserted.
But correction officials have failed to produce the department’s analysis or information related to it, despite Conroy’s commitment to the Council to forward the material. City Councilmember Julie Won, chair of the Council’s Committee on Contracts (D-Queens), said, “It’s clear from the hearing that there are stark pricing differences between what’s available on the market and what’s being charged in the commissary. Even a menstrual pad is almost double the price.”
She vowed that the Council would subpoena the report if necessary.
Department of Correction general counsel James Conroy speaks at a City Hall hearing about commissary prices. Jan. 30, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales/THE CITY
Correction officials said they would only respond to a request from THE CITY for the internal review if a Freedom of Information Law request were filed and that an answer would not be forthcoming until April.
Correction spokesperson Latima Johnson declined to comment on any specific pricing disparities. “We will continue to evaluate pricing to ensure that costs are in line with fair-market values,” she said.
The Velveeta Exception
THE CITY’s analysis found that for three of the 16 products surveyed, Keefe charged less than any of the local stores surveyed. They included Kellogg’s Club Crackers, single-serve cups of Velveeta macaroni and cheese, and boxes of Quaker Instant Oatmeal variety packs, with prices 11 to 75% lower.
In another three cases, some stores charged less than Keefe and others more. A four-ounce Hershey Cookies ’n’ Cream bar costs $3.80 on Instacart, three cents more than what Keefe charges via Securepak. Otherwise, the treat costs $3.39 at three local grocery stores: Trade Fair in Astoria and East Elmhurst, and Food Bazaar in Jackson Heights.
Far more common was the kind of disparity involving a 1.3-ounce cup of Cheerios cereal, which was offered for $3.62 on the Securepak website. The price was far lower at every store surveyed — $1.59 at the Trade Fair supermarket a short walk from the Rikers bus stop in Queens, for example, and $1.69 via Instacart, according to its website.
A six-pack of Swiss Miss cost friends and family members $4.19 through Keefe while Food Bazaar’s website on Feb. 23 showed that it cost $1.25 at the chain’s Jackson Heights location.
Cheerios were for sale at a market in East Elmhurst near Rikers Island, Jan. 30, 2025. Credit: Mia Hollie/THE CITY
A 20-pack of Bigelow chai tea costs $4.64 on Securepak. But shortly after Conroy’s testimony, the same item cost $4.39 at Trade Fair supermarkets in East Elmhurst and Astoria, $3.50 at Food Bazaar in Jackson Heights and $3.60 on Instacart.
At the Council hearing, Conroy testified that Keefe has increased listed prices on three items, a move allowed under the contract after the first year. One of those hikes, for sugar packets, he pinned on “an error in typing,” with the price jumping from 11 cents to 30 cents per packet. Sugar packets are free at coffee shops and restaurants.
In July, Keefe also asked to bump up the price for pork jerky, but the Department of Correction declined and instead took the chewy meat sticks off the menu, Conroy testified.
“This contract raises so many different issues,” said Claude Millman, a lawyer specializing in city procurement who was the director of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS) during the Giuliani administration from 1998 to 2000.
What Price is Right?
He said that one way to resolve the seeming conflict between the two contract provisions would be for the Correction Department or another city agency like the Comptroller’s Office to conduct an audit of the prices Keefe charged at the end of every year in comparison to neighborhood prices.
“At the end of each year there should be an adjustment made and any payments should be rejiggered to account for the fact that the pricing may have been too high in some cases,” he said. “I would think that would be a natural thing happening.”
That hasn’t happened in any public way. Representatives for City Comptroller Brad Lander and the city’s Department of Investigation declined to comment. Keefe also did not respond to a request seeking comment.
Last March, Lander, citing THE CITY’s initial investigation, tried to block the agreement with Keefe, citing a “litany of procedural failures and contract shortcomings.” Lander’s office also noted the no-bid nature of the deal had failed to allow other firms, including minority-owned organizations, from bidding.
But the Adams administration weeks later overrode that decision and went forward with the revised contract.
Teddy Greene waits to visit his relative on Rikers Island, Feb. 5, 2025. Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
At Rikers recently, visitors had the same kinds of complaints about high prices that had greeted the initial contract. Siblings Teddy Greene and Jadine Knight told THE CITY that their incarcerated brother struggles to buy what he needs at the commissary despite the family’s sending him $150 every week.
“One-hundred and fifty dollars is not what you really think $150 is in there,” Greene said as he stood in line at the Eric M. Taylor Center before a visit.
The online Securepak system is no better, Knight added. “I feel like they only want you to do like a $50 or $25 minimum, and you could only buy like two things,” she said.
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