Not to be confused with Mount Eden Prison

Mount Eden Prisons

Mount Eden Prisons refers to two New Zealand prisons, located in Lauder Road in the Central Auckland suburb of Mt Eden. They are:* Mount Eden Prison, which holds about 420 sentenced male prisoners...

 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

Paremoremo

Paremoremo is a largely rural locality about 8 km southwest of Albany on the northern fringe of Auckland, New Zealand. Coatesville is about 7 km to the north, and Riverhead is about 8 km to the west....

, North Shore City, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. 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.

Facilities

Auckland Prison includes the medium-security Auckland West division, built in 1981 to relieve crowding at other institutions, in particular Mount Eden Prison

Mount Eden Prisons

Mount Eden Prisons refers to two New Zealand prisons, located in Lauder Road in the Central Auckland suburb of Mt Eden. They are:* Mount Eden Prison, which holds about 420 sentenced male prisoners...

; 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. Conditions in it are very restrictive, and there are around three prison officers per inmate of the block.

Security

Security was upgraded significantly during the 1990s and 2000s. Rev David Connor, prison chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

, 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

Strip search

A strip search is the stripping of a person to check for weapons or other contraband.-Legality of strip searches:...

, their phone calls are recorded and drug dog

Detection dog

A detection dog or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to and works at using its senses to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, or blood. Hunting dogs that search for game and search dogs that search for missing humans are generally not considered detection dogs...

s 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

Handgun

A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....

, or have access to weapons like pepper spray

Pepper spray

Pepper spray, also known as OC spray , OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent that is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears...

 or taser

Taser

A Taser is an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt voluntary control of muscles. Its manufacturer, Taser International, calls the effects "neuromuscular incapacitation" and the devices' mechanism "Electro-Muscular Disruption technology"...

s. 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).

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

The New Zealand Herald

- External links :* * *...

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.

Famous inmates

Triple murderer William Bell

William Dwane Bell

William Dwane Bell is a convicted New Zealand murderer who is serving a 30 year non-parole prison sentence at Paremoremo Prison, the longest non-parole sentence ever passed in New Zealand.-Criminal case:...

 is currently held in the maximum security area.

Notorious LSD

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

 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 and was recaptured in 1999. George Charlie Baker, who killed a teenage boy in a prison van

Murder of Liam Ashley

On 24 August 2006, George Charlie Baker, a prisoner from North Shore City, Auckland, fatally injured Liam Ashley, a 17-year old from North Shore in a New Zealand prison van...

, is a prisoner at Auckland Prison.

Convicted murderer Antonie Dixon was being held in the maximum security area, awaiting sentencing, when he died in February 2009.

External links

• Auckland Prison (Department of Corrections
  Department of Corrections (New Zealand)
  The Department of Corrections is a state sector organisation of New Zealand. Its core responsibility is the management of the New Zealand corrections system.New Zealand's Minister of Corrections is the Hon...
  
  website)