HLNtv.com
(CNN) — Former NFL player Aaron Hernandez’s former teammates may be one win away from this year’s Super Bowl, but he won’t get the chance to root for them from behind bars this weekend.
Hernandez, formerly a tight end for the New England Patriots, is currently awaiting trial in a Massachusetts jail. He has been charged with first-degree murder and weapons violations related to the death of his friend, Odin Lloyd.
Hernandez, 24, was indicted in August 2013 on those charges and has pleaded not guilty.
When asked whether Hernandez would have access to a TV to watch the Patriots play the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship on Sunday, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson told HLN, “Absolutely not.”
Other inmates are allowed two hours of entertainment television each day, but Hernandez is being housed in a “special management” unit, according to Hodgson.
“It’s a unit where only one inmate can be out of their cell at a time,” Hodgson said. “And they have to move with restraints.”
He further explained that inmates in this unit are out of their cells only three hours each day: One hour in the morning to shower and make phone calls, a second hour to walk around the unit and a third hour later in the day to go outside and get exercise.
During the 21 other hours of each day, when Hernandez is confined to his 7-by-10-foot-sized cell, he has access to a bed, a desk and a toilet/sink combo.
“It’s a big transition from a 7,000-square-foot home to a 70-square-foot cell,” said Hodgson. “There’s no walking from room to room — it’s pretty confining.”
Hernandez has been placed in this special segregated unit because of his notoriety, according to Hodgson, who called him, “easy prey for people on the inside wanting to make a name for themselves.”
If the Patriots are fortunate enough to make it to the Super Bowl, Hernandez won’t be able to watch that game, either.
“We obviously wouldn’t make accommodations,” Hodgson said.
The-CNN-Wire
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