NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge on Friday ordered prison officials to provide better care for a death row inmate being held in restraints after he cut off his penis.
Riverbend Maximum Security Institution must provide clothing and other necessities to Henry Hodges while he recovers but can keep him restrained for his safety, Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles ordered Friday. Hodges has been naked and restrained by his arms and legs on a thin mattress over a concrete slab since Oct. 21, when he returned to prison after being hospitalized for his injury, said Kelley Henry, an attorney for Hodges.
Henry had filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against prison officials on Friday morning after visiting Hodges in prison the previous day.
Without an emergency order from the court, “the risk of irreparable harm is great,” she had said. Hodges could have bedsores, develop sepsis and die, she argued. “And the lack of mental stimulation constitutes torture.”
Arguing for the Tennessee Department of Correction, Deputy Attorney General Scott Sutherland had said the judge shouldn’t second-guess the judgement of the prison doctors.