Auckland Prison

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The high-security section of Auckland Prison.

Paremoremo Prison (often simply Paremoremo, official name Auckland Prison), 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. As the only facility of its type in the country,^[1] the maximum security section houses some of worst criminals of the country.

1 Organisation
- 1.1 Facilities
- 1.2 Security
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Organisation

[edit] Facilities

In addition to the main facility for 645 prisoners, 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. While built for around 645 prisoners,^[1] overcrowding is a constant problem at Paremoremo at this time (2005), as in all New Zealand jails.^[2]

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.^[3]

[edit] Security

Security has been upgraded strongly within the last decades. 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. Now (in 2006), however:

"...that fence has razor wire on top, and there is a steel fence beyond it and then there is a trip-wire barrier that sets off an alarm, and outside that there is another razor-wire fence."

Prisoners are also strip-searched after visits, and are urine tested, while drug dogs are used to search cells and mailrooms. All phone calls made by prisoners are taped as well. However, drugs are still a regular feature within the prison system,^[4] with 13% of all random drug tests on inmates showing positive in 2007.^[5] Guards however do not carry guns, and in fact (as of 2006) do not even 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).^[3]^[6]

After a serious attack of 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.^[7]