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Second 911 Code Failure at Riverbend Prison Delayed Ambulance for Inmate Who Died
For the second time in less than a month, Riverbend prison staff lacked required security codes during a 911 call, delaying an ambulance by 19 minutes for 24-year-old Corrion Partee, who was in cardiac arrest and later died. The Department of Correction says it is still reviewing the October 17 incident.
NASHVILLE â A second emergency call from Riverbend Maximum Security Prison has exposed the same dangerous gap in security protocol that state officials were warned about just weeks earlier, delaying an ambulance for an inmate in cardiac arrest who later died.
The call came in at 9:01 a.m. on Saturday, October 17. A prison employee told the 911 dispatcher, "We have an inmate that needs an ambulance." What followed was a 19-minute ordeal of hold music, transfers and confusion before the correct security code was finally provided and emergency crews could enter the prison grounds.
According to recordings of the call, the Riverbend employee did not know the prison's address and spent nearly a minute trying to find it. When the dispatcher asked what the medical problem was, the employee transferred the call to someone's voicemail. The dispatcher could be heard exclaiming, "What?!"
After calling back, the dispatcher was placed on hold for a full minute. When the employee returned, she reported that the inmate appeared to be in cardiac arrest: "He's got no pulse. They're doing CPR."
But to send emergency responders into a state prison, staff must provide a specific security code over the phone â a protocol designed to prevent fake calls and escapes and to protect firefighters and paramedics. The employees working that morning did not know the code.
The employee offered, "It's a code 4 medical emergency." The dispatcher replied, "No, that's not what I'm asking." At another point the employee admitted, "We don't know the codes. Give me a minute." The dispatcher responded, "No, no, no. I'm not calling back again. I'm trying to verify the code which is standard procedure in emergencies at the prison."
Over the next several minutes the dispatcher was repeatedly put on hold â once for two minutes, then again for more than two minutes â while fire and ambulance units waited on the radio for clearance to enter the prison. The correct code was finally relayed at 9:20 a.m., 19 minutes after the initial call.
By the time medics reached the inmate, he had already died. Whether the delay contributed to his death is unknown.
The inmate was Corrion Partee, 24, a Memphis native serving a nine-year sentence for aggravated robbery. His cause of death is still pending.
The incident mirrors a similar failure two weeks earlier, when a Department of Correction administrator called 911 during the botched execution of death row inmate Christa Pike and did not know the required security code or that one was needed. In that case, it took more than 25 minutes for someone to call back with the code.
After that first incident drew media scrutiny, the Department of Correction faced questions about how such a breakdown could occur. In response to questions about the October 17 call, a TDOC spokesperson offered a single sentence: "I can only tell you that we are still reviewing the incident."
The repeated failures raise concerns about emergency preparedness at one of the state's most secure facilities and whether the department has taken any steps to ensure staff know the protocol. For families of inmates and for the emergency crews who respond to calls at the prison, the delays represent a life-or-death gap in a system that is supposed to protect both public safety and the people in state custody.