Aaron Hernandez Moved To Prison Isolation For 1 Month Following Physical Altercation With Inmate

Two days removed from a physical altercation with a fellow inmate, former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez learned he will spend the next 30 days in a significantly more isolated part of the Bristol County Jail in Massachusetts. Hernandez is being held without bail stemming from the shooting death of former semiprofessional football player Odin Lloyd, an act the former Pro Bowl receiver has already pleaded not guilty. The 24-year-old will now be forced to eat his meals in the cell while spending 23 hours each day inside the locked room.

“I'm not happy that there may have been a breakdown in our system, in our protocols,” Sheriff Tom Hodgson said about the altercation between the two prison inmates. “When we have failures, the first thing we look at and I look at is, number one, how did this happen? And number two how do we make sure this doesn't happen again? We're investigating it now to find out why two inmates would have been out at the same time in what unit.”

Hernandez was previously allowed to take in his meals at the prison cafeteria while also spending time out of handcuffs. Now that he's been moved to an isolated portion however, the former University of Florida standout will not only eat inside his unit, he must now wear waist chains and leg irons each time he steps outside his cell. The reason Sheriff Hodgson was bothered by the fracas is because at the Bristol County Jail only one prisoner at a time should be out of his cell, an occurrence that will now involve the reviewing of incident reports and detailing of routine procedures that may have been broken.

In addition to being held for the shooting death of Lloyd, Aaron Hernandez is also being investigated in the 2012 double murder of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were killed in a drive-by shooting in Boston.