Henry Hodges has accused the state of cruel and weird punishment for keeping him tied down with restraints on a skinny vinyl mattress over a concrete slab after his return from the hospital, where surgeons reattached his penis. He was immobilized — at one point for six hours straight — despite discharge orders from Vanderbilt University Medical Center that he avoid sitting for greater than two hours at a time, in response to court filings, which don’t mention whether that also includes lying down.
Hodges ended up having to return to the hospital to have his penis surgically removed after necrosis set in, in response to filings. The state maintains that Hodges was not mistreated and that he has received appropriate care.
Attorneys for the state are searching for a protective order to forestall the general public disclosure of records that include any video of Hodges taken contained in the prison. That features footage from the cell where Hodges severed his penis with a razor and the cell where he was held in restraints after discharge.
“The disclosure of any such photographs, videos, or other recordings could pose a severe security risk to each inmates and staff,” in response to an affidavit by Ernest Lewis, the associate warden of security on the Riverbend Maximum Security Institute. Specifically, the recordings might show the inside layout of the prison, including windows and doors, Lewis said.
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Hodges opposes the protective order. In a court filing Wednesday, his attorneys claim the state’s motion is an try to “hide their bad behavior from the general public.” The document describes one episode in graphic detail.
“These videos depict Mr. Hodges in 4-point restraints, laying in an obviously painful spread eagle position with nothing but a black cloth thrown over the center of his body,” in response to the objection filed by Kelly Henry, an assistant federal public defender. “Within the video, Mr. Hodges is left to defecate on himself and lie in his own feces as an alternative of being offered a possibility to go to the bathroom.”
“The overwhelmingly horrific nature of those videos is the precise reason why Defendants need to hide them from the general public under a protective order,” the objection reads.
It features a declaration from Ben Leonard, an investigator with the federal public defender’s office. Leonard states that much of what the state seeks to guard, comparable to the layout of the prison or location of security cameras, is already public on the Tennessee Department of Correction’s own YouTube channel.
The AP on Thursday filed a motion to intervene within the case to guard public access to the records that document Hodges’ treatment. The AP wants the court to contemplate its motion at a Monday hearing, which Hodges supports however the state opposes.
The state cannot simply claim a broad security risk, but must show that specific harms would come from disclosing the records, Paul McAdoo, an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press who’s representing the AP, wrote to the court. The incontrovertible fact that the defendants are public officials and that the case is of public interest also weigh against granting a protective order, in response to the memorandum.
“Widespread news coverage of Mr. Hodges’ hunger strike, mental health crisis, and treatment by correctional staff underline the compelling public interest in his case, particularly,” the memorandum states.
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