The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution (RMSI) is a prison in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, United States, operated by the

Tennessee Department of Correction The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) is a Cabinet-level agency within the Tennessee state government responsible for the oversight of more than 20,000 convicted offenders in Tennessee's fourteen prisons, four of which are privately man ...

. The prison opened in 1989 and replaced its 100-year-old neighbor, the

Tennessee State Penitentiary Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located six miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Cockrill Bend. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The facility was severely damage ...

. RMSI, which is made up by 20 different buildings, sits on located off Cockrill Bend Boulevard in Nashville. Riverbend's designated capacity is 786 offenders. Of that number, 480 are classified as high risk. The prison's overall mission is to ensure the safety of the public, departmental employees and inmates by managing high-risk male offenders. The Warden oversees a staff of nearly 400 people, including administrative workers, correctional officers, unit managers and medical personnel. Education programs at the prison include GED and Adult Basic Education. There are also vocational classes available for printing, commercial cleaning, industrial maintenance, cabinet making/

millwork Millwork is historically any wood-mill produced decorative material used in building construction. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by milling at a planing mill can usually be installed with minimal alterat ...

and computer information systems. TRICOR, the prison industry, also manages a data entry plant and print shop at the prison. Inmates not involved in academic vocation, or industry programs are required to work in support service roles throughout the facility. Male death row prisoners live at Riverbend.Death Row Facts
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. Retrieved on October 25, 2023. The state's

electric chair The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New Yo ...

and

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium) for the express purpose of causing death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but t ...

gurney are located at Riverbend.

Notable inmates

* Cory Lamont Batey – rapist in Vanderbilt rape case, serving 15 years. * Letalvis Cobbins – convicted of the 2007 murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom * Michael Lee Cummins – perpetrator of the

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in which he murdered 8 people, including his mother, father, and uncle. A 9th victim, his grandmother, died of her injuries in 2022. Serving 8 life sentences without the possibility of parole * George Hyatte – convicted of the murder of Tennessee corrections transport officer Wayne "Cotton" Morgan after he pleaded guilty to a robbery charge and his wife, Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte, fatally shot the corrections officer at the Kingston Courthouse in Roane County, Tennessee on August 9, 2005. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on March 9, 2009 * Bruce Mendenhall – murderer and suspected serial killer * Paul Dennis Reid – murderer * Emanuel Kidega Samson – perpetrator of the 2017 Burnette Chapel shooting in which he murdered churchgoer Melanie Crow and injured 7 others, serving a life sentence without parole plus 291 years

Death row

* Byron Lewis Black – sentenced to death on March 10, 1989, for the 1988 Clay family murders * Lemaricus Davidson – sentenced to death on October 30, 2009, for the 2007 kidnapping, rape, torture and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom * Jessie Dotson – sentenced to death on October 12, 2010, for the 2008 murders of six people. Dotson received six death sentences for the crime * Henry Eugene Hodges – a convicted

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

sentenced to death on January 30, 1992, for the 1990 murder of Ronald Allen Bassett. * Henry Lee Jones – sentenced to death on May 19, 2009, for the 2003 murders of an elderly couple * Donald Ray Middlebrooks – sentenced to death on September 22, 1989, for the 1987 torture and murder of Kerrick Majors

Executed

Robert Glen Coe Robert Glen Coe (April 15, 1956 – April 19, 2000) was an American murderer who was convicted of the 1979 rape and murder of eight-year-old Cary Ann Medlin in Greenfield, Tennessee. He was executed for the crime in 2000, becoming the first pers ...

– child rapist and murderer; executed by lethal injection April 19, 2000 * Sedley Alley – convicted of the 1985 torture, rape, and murder of Suzanne Marie Collins; executed by lethal injection on June 28, 2006 * Philip Workman – murderer; executed by lethal injection on May 9, 2007 * Daryl Holton – child murderer; executed by electrocution on September 12, 2007 * Billy Ray Irick – child rapist and murderer; executed by lethal injection on August 9, 2018 * Edmund Zagorski – murderer; executed by electrocution on November 1, 2018 * David Earl Miller – convicted of the 1981 murder of Lee Standifer; executed by electrocution on December 6, 2018. Longest-serving death row inmate in Tennessee at the time of his execution * Stephen Michael West – convicted of the 1986 murders of Wanda and Sheila Romines; executed by electrocution on August 15, 2019 * Leroy Hall Jr. (alias Lee Hall) – convicted of the 1991 murder of Traci Crozier; executed by electrocution on December 5, 2019 * Nicholas Todd Sutton – serial killer; executed by electrocution on February 20, 2020 * Oscar Franklin Smith – murderer; executed by lethal injection on May 22, 2025

References

External links

Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
Tennessee Dept. of Corrections
Death Row Offenders
Tennessee Dept. of Corrections {{Execution sites in the United States Prisons in Tennessee Capital punishment in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Nashville, Tennessee Execution sites in the United States 1989 establishments in Tennessee