Aaron Hernandez has been placed in a "segregated unit" at the Souza-Baranowski maximum security prison after guards found a homemade knife known as a "shank" in his jail cell.

According to NESN, the former New England Patriots tight end was found in violation on Thursday and was immediately transferred to an even more restricted area of the facility.

The 26-year-old is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after being convicted earlier this year in the 2013 execution styled killing of former associate Odin Lloyd.

Hernandez is also awaiting trial in 2012 killings of Safiro Furtado and Daniel de Abreu. Both men were gunned down outside a nightclub in downtown Boston. Prosecutors allege Hernandez opened fire on the two after one of the men spilled a drink on him inside the club and failed to apologize.

It's not clear how long Hernandez might be isolated, but this hardly marks the first trouble for him since being incarcerated. Back in May, several media outlets reported he was believed to have served as the lookout man for one inmate who went into another's cell where a gang-related brawl ensued.

All three inmates were later disciplined, with Hernandez being placed in a special management section. In 2014, Hernandez was indicted on assault charges after allegedly attacking another inmate being transported from an infirmary at the Bristol County House of Correction in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Word is Hernandez punched the man and knocked him to the ground, though neither suffered serious injury.

Meanwhile, attorneys for Hernandez have appealed his conviction in the Lloyd killing, among other things contending that a juror may have schemed their way onto the panel that voted to find him guilty and subject him to a lifelong sentence.

Hernandez had only recently signed a $40 million extension with the Patriots before being arrested in connection with the Lloyd slaying.