Issues aplenty at Waikeria Prison long before fiery riots

Wednesday, 30 December 2020

Emergency services were called to Waikeria Prison on Tuesday after inmates lit several fires.

It’s getting a $750 million expansion but Waikeria Prison – particularly the dank, rotting high security facility where Tuesday’s riot broke out – has issues that may never be resolved.

The prison sits 16 kilometres south of Te Awamutu, and is currently home to about 750 men on varying sentences, ranging from minimum to high security.

The facility opened in 1911, and it is the country's second-oldest operating prison, behind Invercargill which was opened in 1910.

It used to be New Zealand's largest prison before a 2012 Corrections reshuffle that closed some of the nation's older prisons, including some units at Waikeria.

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The high-security facility at Waikeria Prison, also known as the Top Jail, was extensively damaged in the riot.

* Fire breaks out in Waikeria Prison, staff negotiating with nine prisoners

* Double bunking booed in Waikeria Prison expansion plan

* Minister unaware of prison population projections when Waikeria decision made

The high security facility was in âvery poor conditionâ a 2017 report found, and its design made it very challenging for staff to supervise prisoners.

Its capacity now stands at 806.

The $750m expansion of Waikeria Prison is happening on a part of the site close to the prison farm.

But it is poised to once again be among the country’s largest in 2022 when the $750m expansion is finished. The project, announced in June 2018, involves the construction of a 600-bed facility, including a 100-bed mental health unit, to replace the almost 110-year-old high-security unit of 426 beds.

There is a further 380-bed low-security unit on site as well.

The expansion is not happening before time – but it seems that it won’t resolve all the issues at the facility.

Gang violence is a regular part of prison life, the 2017 investigation found.

Independent inspectors who spent a week at Waikeria in 2017 identified numerous issues including damp, dark cells where prisoners were sometimes locked away for up to 26 hours at a time.

The high security facility was in “very poor condition” the inspectors found, and its design made it very challenging for staff to actively supervise prisoners.

Many of the cells were dark and damp, with minimal natural light and little air flow. Some parts of flooring in the toilet areas were stained and the floor coverings were lifting and decaying. Graffiti was on most surfaces. The stainless steel toilets were designed not to have lids, which was a hygiene issue, because meals were eaten in the cells.

The stainless steel toilets in the cells were designed not to have lids, which poses hygiene issues, because meals are eaten in the cells.

“Gangs had a significant influence in the prison’s high security facility, and prisoners told us that violence was a regular part of prison life,” the report stated.

“The prison managed security risks by closing off communal areas to keep rival prisoners apart. At the time of our inspection, prisoners were being unlocked for only a few hours a day due to a threat made against some staff and prisoners.”

In the prison’s At Risk Unit, prisoners spent 22 hours of each day locked in their cells with few activities to engage them, the inspectors’ report found. At times, they spent 26 hours in their cell between unlocks.

About 750 men currently call Waikeria Prison home.

However, the inspectors’ verdict was far from being totally damning. The prison offered a wide range of rehabilitation, training and work opportunities. In the low security units, staff-prisoner relationships were generally positive.

Staff in the high security facility were also diligent in their management of prisoners and appeared to be reasonably successful in controlling access to unauthorised items such as drugs.

A follow-up inspection in 2019 found the high security units continued to be an environment “not conducive for the humane treatment of prisoners”.

Additionally, a 2018 paper presented to Cabinet highlighted the issues of double bunking in cells, and fears it could increase the risk of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and reduce rehabilitation opportunities.

Room sharing badly impacted inmates' health and reduced rehabilitation opportunities.

It is a problem due to persist. Half of the cells at the new Waikeria Prison facility will be double bunked - in other words, two-thirds of prisoners will share a cell.

The guidelines for the minimum size of a two-person cell is 10sq m of living space, plus sanitary annex. The new cells, however, will be 9sq m.

The 21-hectare site where the expansion is being constructed was formerly part of the prison’s farming operation and, as a result, the prison farm herd has been reduced by about 250 cows.

The current expansion is not to the scale of the mega-prison proposed by National when that party was in government in 2016. Then the plan was to build a 1500-cell facility in a $1 billion public-private partnership build on the same site, in order to deal with a rapidly growing prison population.