The Riverbend Maximum Security Institution (RMSI) is a prison in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 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 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 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. The state's electric chair and lethal injection 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 2019 Sumner County murders 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 – serial killer sentenced to death for seven murders during three fast-food restaurant robberies. Reid died on November 1, 2013, due to pneumonia, heart failure, and upper respiratory issues.

Death row

Executed

External links