Auckland Prison
- Not to be confused with Mount Eden Prison in Auckland City.
Auckland Prison (colloquial and original name Paremoremo Prison, often simply Paremoremo or Pare, pronounced "Par-re "), is a prison facility consisting of a medium security- and a maximum security-prison compound in Paremoremo, North Shore City, New Zealand. The two compounds are separate but located close together in a rural area.
The prison contains New Zealand's only specialist maximum-security unit, housing some of the most severe criminals in the country, and its old names of 'Paremoremo' and 'Pare' are still well-known and used throughout New Zealand.
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[edit] Organisation
[edit] Facilities
Auckland Prison includes the medium-security Auckland West division, built in 1981 to relieve crowding at other institutions, in particular Mount Eden Prison; a minimum security work and pre-release unit called Te Mahinga; and a 60-bed special treatment unit for child sex offenders, called Te Piriti. The prison holds about 650 prisoners.
Within the maximum security prison, the section (formerly) referred to as 'D Block' has a particularly harsh reputation.[citation needed] Conditions in it are very restrictive, and there are around three prison officers per inmate of the block.[1]
[edit] Security
Security was upgraded significantly during the 1990s and 2000s. Rev David Connor, prison chaplain, noted that when he moved to Paremoremo in 1984, a chain-link fence around the medium-security block was all that was required. In 2010, however, the maximum security part of the prison, East Division, is surrounded by a highly secure perimeter fence covered in razor wire. Razor wire is also laid between the unit and the fence. East Wing has only one point of entry which has a highly sensitive scanner which every person must pass through.
Anyone carrying items into East Division is required to bring them through in a clear plastic bag. Every person entering is also liable to be searched. East Division has a centralised CCTV system, with cameras monitored from the control room in the centre of the wing at all times. All cells are made of solid concrete and have bars on the windows. All exercise yards are enclosed. There is also a higher staff/prisoner ratio in east block than in other units.
West Division accommodates high-medium security prisoners. Like East Wing, it has only one point of entry and any person entering the unit is liable to be searched .There are also CCTV cameras monitored from the Guardroom, and sensors between the fences of the West Division.
There is also one minimum security unit, one low medium security unit and the Te Piriti unit which houses low security prisoners. These units have a lower level of security as prisoners in these units are deemed to be a minimal risk to public safety.
Prisoners are regularly strip-searched, their phone calls are recorded and drug dogs are used to search cells and mailrooms.
Preventing drugs from entering the prison is a constant challenge and, for New Zealand prisoners overall, the rate of positive random drug tests had fallen from 35 per cent in 1998 to 10.5 per cent in 2009.
Guards do not carry guns, or have access to weapons like pepper spray or tasers. Noting that in case of a serious incident, they have few options but to call the police, correction officers have repeatedly warned that violent inmates are becoming more of a problem (in Paremoremo and the New Zealand corrections system in general).[1][2]
After a serious attack by inmates on a prison guard in July 2007, a member of the staff anonymously complained to The New Zealand Herald about security procedures being inadequate, and called the prison as being more like a 'holiday camp' for prisoners - especially in the case of those considered especially dangerous, alleging that prison management gives in to most of their demands to keep the peace.[3]
[edit] Famous inmates
Triple murderer William Bell is currently held in the maximum security area.[citation needed]
Notorious LSD trafficker Brian Curtis was an inmate after being convicted of importing $1.5 million of LSD in 1991 until his escape in August 1993 and again after his recapture in 2001 until his release on parole in December 2007. Convicted murderer Michael Bullock escaped with Curtis[4] and was recaptured in 1999. George Charlie Baker, who killed a teenage boy in a prison van, is a prisoner at Auckland Prison.[5]
Convicted murderer Antonie Dixon was being held in the maximum security area, awaiting sentencing, when he died in February 2009.[6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Over one hundred lawyers inside Paremoremo prison - Auckland District Law Society Newsletter, Issue No. 20, 2004
- ^ Prison officers call for weapons after hostage drama at Paremoremo - The New Zealand Herald, Thursday 09 November 2006
- ^ Cheng, Derek (1 August 2007). "Prison guard: Paremoremo like a 'holiday camp'". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=395&objectid=10455045&pnum=2. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
- ^ "Escaper wants to renew appeal". The New Zealand Herald. 9 February 2005.
- ^ "Hostage taker among New Zealand's worst". New Zealand Herald. 27 August 2009. Retrieved on 16 December 2009.
- ^ "Corrections 'stuffed up', says Dixon's lawyer". The New Zealand Herald. 5 February 2009.
[edit] External links
- Auckland Prison (Department of Corrections website)
Coordinates: 36°45′29″S 174°38′41″E / 36.7580633°S 174.6448088°E
