A 24-year-old inmate at Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution was in cardiac distress with no pulse while prison staff spent 19 minutes fumbling to give 911 dispatchers a security code required before an ambulance could be sent onto the grounds. Corrion Partee, a Memphis native serving a nine-year sentence for aggravated robbery, died before medics arrived.
The call for help came in Saturday morning, October 17, just after 9 a.m., according to NewsChannel 5. Riverbend requires staff to provide a security code over the phone before fire crews or ambulances can be dispatched to the facility, a protocol meant to prevent fake calls and escape attempts and to protect responders entering the prison. On the morning Partee needed help, the employee on the line told the dispatcher, “We don't know the codes. Give me a minute,” and the worker also did not know the prison's address, the station reported.
Fire and ambulance crews arrived but had to wait for clearance to enter the prison grounds while dispatchers sought confirmation that the correct code had finally been provided. During the standoff, a Riverbend employee reported that the inmate had no pulse and was receiving CPR. It took a full 19 minutes from the initial call for staff to supply the correct code and get an ambulance dispatched, the station's report found.
A Second Failure in Weeks
The incident marks the second time in less than a month that Riverbend employees have failed to provide the required codes when calling 911, delaying emergency help for someone in medical distress, per the same account. Two weeks earlier, the Tennessee Department of Correction had already faced scrutiny over a similar ambulance delay tied to Christa Pike's botched execution, when a TDOC administrator called 911 without knowing the security code or even that one was required. That earlier delay stretched past 25 minutes before someone called back with the code, the station reported.
Separate reporting has detailed just how long that September episode dragged on. The New York Times reported that emergency response to Pike's medical emergency after her failed execution was delayed by about half an hour amid confusion over whether the 911 call was even authentic. Nashville Fire Department records cited by WATE show the first call for help that night reached dispatchers at 8:40 p.m. on September 30 and was logged as an unconscious subject at Riverbend within three minutes, yet crews are strictly barred from entering prison grounds until dispatch verifies the security codes. WATE reported dispatch did not receive and double-verify those codes until 9:11 p.m. — 24 minutes after first responders had already arrived at the gate.
Outcome Still Unknown
TDOC told NewsChannel 5 it is still reviewing the October 17 incident, but the department has not offered an explanation for why staff on duty that morning did not know the required code. Partee's cause of death remains pending, and the station's report said it is unknown whether a faster response could have made a difference in saving his life — a question investigators have not answered.
