The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution (RMSI) is a prison in Nashville, Tennessee, operated by the Tennessee Department of Correction. The prison opened in 1989 and replaced its 100-year-old neighbor, the Tennessee State Penitentiary. RMSI, which is made up by 20 different buildings, sits on 132 acres (0.53 km2) located off Cockrill Bend Boulevard in Nashville. Riverbend's designated capacity is 714 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 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.
Serving 8 life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Perpetrator of the 2019 Sumner County murders in which he murdered 8 people, including his mother, father, and uncle.[2][3][4] A 9th victim, his grandmother, died of her injuries in 2022.[5]
Emanuel Kidega Samson
00607982 / 03772211
Serving a life sentence without parole plus 291 years.
Edmund Zagorski – murderer executed by electrocution November 1, 2018
George Hyatte - convicted for 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.
William Newkirk - Convicted murderer in 2018 Hogwild Saloon shooting in Kingsport Tennessee, pled guilty to second degree murder, attempted first degree murder and employing a firearm in a dangerous felony, was sentenced to 19 years on April 19th, 2024.
David Earl Miller - Convicted of the 1981 murder of Lee Standifer and executed on December 6, 2018. Longest-serving death row inmate in Tennessee at the time of his execution.
