Prison Officials Ordered To Provide “Better Care” For Death Row Inmate Who Chopped Off His Own Penis
Via ABC:
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.
According to the complaint, Hodges periodically suffers from psychotic episodes. One of those began around Oct. 3, when Hodges started smearing feces on the walls of his cell. Rather than provide him with mental health treatment, prison officers began withholding food from Hodges, according to the complaint.
On Oct. 7, Hodges broke a window out in his cell and used a razor to slit his left wrist. In the infirmary, he told the treatment provider he needed to go on suicide watch. However, he was returned to a cell where, less than an hour later, he severed his penis from his body with a razor blade, according to the complaint.
[ABC]
Hodges reportedly suffers from “repressed homosexuality” and was called a “male prostitute” in court records. He was convicted of murdering multiple men and sentenced to death in 1992.
