Paparua Men's Prison
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PAPARUA MEN’S PRISON: A SOCIAL AND POLITICAL HISTORY BY TONI SYMON A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology Department of Sociology University of Canterbury Christchurch 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements 1 Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Methodology 5 Challenges 8 Chapter One: The Development of a Penal System in New Zealand: 1814-1909 10 The First Prisons 11 The First Inspector General 14 Chapter Two: The New Method 1909-1924 18 Findlay‟s New Method 18 The Importance of Farming in New Zealand 21 The “Gospel of Hard Work” 25 The Need for a New Prison 26 Paparua Prison- The Early Years 31 Principal Industries 36 Life at Paparua Prison 38 Chapter Three: An Era of Penal Conservatism: 1925-1949 40 Bert Dallard Takes Over 41 The Inter-War Economy 45 Dallard‟s Contribution to Prisons 46 Paparua Prison- Life Inside 52 Daily Routine 54 The Weekend and Small Concessions 56 Capital Punishment 58 Prisons Come Under Scrutiny 59 Prisons in the Spotlight 60 Chapter Four: The Swing Back to Reform: 1949-1970 62 The Barnett Era: 1949-1960 62 Barnett‟s Changes 63 A Climbing Muster 66 The 1954 Legislation 70 Battling the Problem 73 A Women‟s Prison at Paparua 74 The Hanan and Robson Era- A Perfect Relationship 1960-1970 76 A Decade of Impetus and Modernisation 78 Changes for Prisoners 79 Trouble Looming 81 The 1965 Riots 84 The End of an Era 87 Chapter Five: Changing Dynamics 1970-1990 89 The 1970s 89 Familiar Problems in a New Context 90 A More Liberal Approach to Prisons 93 Major Strike at Paparua 95 Analysis of the Protest 97 The End of the Seventies 99 Inside Paparua Prison 100 A Day in the Wing 103 Recreation 105 The 1980s- New Problems 107 Violence 108 The Criminal Justice Act 1985 110 Drugs 112 The First Female Prison Officer 113 Looking to the 1990s 114 Chapter Six: A Decade of Turmoil 1990-2000 116 Accommodation Crisis 116 Further Measures Against Violence 120 Violence and Escapes 121 Major Reforms 126 A Management Shakeup 126 Security Improvement 128 The 1997 Hostage Incident 129 Nick Smith‟s Security Crackdown 131 The Canterbury Emergency Response Unit 134 Chapter Seven: Paparua Prison Today 137 New Zealand Prisons Today 138 The Prison Population 139 Canterbury Earthquakes 143 Inside Paparua Prison 144 Arrival 144 Remand 147 High Security 148 Low Security 151 The Youth Unit 153 Conclusion 155 Appendix One: Superintendents and Managers of Paparua Prison 156 Appendix Two: Organisational Hierarchy at Paparua Prison 157 Bibliography 158 Figures and Tables Fig 2.1: New Zealand Prison Muster 1889-1925 28 Fig 2.2: Daily Average Number of Court-Martialled Prisoners in Custody at Paparua Prison 32 Fig 2.3: Paparua Prison Muster 1915-1925 34 Fig 2.4: Daily Average Number of Inmates at Paparua 1915-1925 34 Fig 3.1: New Zealand Prison Muster 1920-1950 42 Fig 3.2: Paparua Prison Muster 1925-1949 43 Fig 3.3: Daily Average Number of Inmates at Paparua 1925-1949 44 Fig 3.4: Annual Cost of Food Rations Per Head in Pounds 1920-1931 49 Fig 4.1: New Zealand Prison Muster 1945-1970 67 Fig 4.2: Paparua Prison Muster 1949-1959 68 Fig 4.3: Daily Average Number of Inmates at Paparua 1945-1959 68 Fig 4.4: Number of Escapes from Paparua Prison 1945-1960 73 Fig 4.5: Number in Christchurch Prison at End of Year 1960-1972 82 Fig 5.1: New Zealand Prison Muster 1965-1985 93 Fig 5.2: New Zealand Prison Muster 1980-1995 107 Fig 6.1: Paparua Prison Muster 1972-2011 118 Fig 6.2: Total Escapes as Percentage of National Muster 1977-2000 126 Fig 7.1: New Zealand Prison Muster 1895-2011 139 Fig 7.2: Paparua Prison Muster at End of Year 1915-2011 142 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to the University of Auckland for welcoming me into your community and giving me the opportunity to undertake my research. A special thank you to the people in the Sociology Department who made sure I had all the resources and help I needed. Without the kind assistance of the University of Auckland, my research, and therefore this thesis, would not have been possible. I would like to thank the University of Canterbury for its on-going support while I was in Auckland and for the remarkable way it dealt with the effects of the Canterbury earthquakes. The staff worked tirelessly to ensure the students were impacted as little as possible. My appreciation is extended to the Department of Corrections for supporting my research and the staff at Paparua prison for facilitating my visits. Bill Moore, thank you for responding to my numerous emails full of questions. To all those kind people I interviewed, I am very grateful for your time and eagerness to share your stories. This thesis would not have been the same without your help. A very special thank you to my supervisor Dr Greg Newbold, who I admire greatly. I discovered my passion in Newbold‟s undergraduate sociology lectures and since then he has mentored and encouraged me. I had no intention of doing my Masters and it was him who encouraged me to. I thank him for his wonderful advice, friendly guidance and always having time for me. Finally, to my partner Brad, I thank you with all my heart for believing in me. 1 ABSTRACT Situated amidst farmland 18 kilometres from the centre of Christchurch is Paparua men‟s prison, one of New Zealand‟s oldest and largest penal institutions. Prisoners have been housed at the Paparua site since 1915 and when the prison buildings were completed in 1925, around 120 prisoners were incarcerated there. Still at the same location where the two original wings continue to accommodate inmates, Paparua has the capacity for nearly 1,000 low to high-security male prisoners. Despite being almost a century old, very little has been recorded about Paparua, which is symptomatic of the paucity of published material on New Zealand prisons. This thesis seeks to address this shortfall in the literature by, for the first time, documenting the events which have taken place at Paparua and giving insight into life for prisoners there over the last 100 years. These events and the changes to prison life have been driven by the social conditions of the day and their intersection with a complex range of factors at the inmate, community and administrative levels. Paparua‟s evolution, therefore, has been the product of the changing socio-political climate and by contextualising the prison‟s history I will show how these dynamics have contributed to the development of Paparua. The research undertaken to achieve such a task involved an historical analysis of 130 years of departmental reports, government reports, parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. This was accompanied by 13 comprehensive interviews with former and current staff and inmates of Paparua. The reconstruction of Paparua‟s past is valuable not only in that it captures the details of an interesting feature of New Zealand history but because it offers insight into the complex range of forces that a are likely to influence its development in the future. 2 INTRODUCTION While various methods of confining malefactors have existed for centuries, prisons have only developed as the mainstay of Western criminal justice systems in the last 200 years (Spierenburg 1995, pg.64). The world‟s first organised penitentiary system was established in the American state of Pennsylvania at the end of the 18th century and a number of other states were quick to follow (Davies 2005, pg.695; Rothman 1995, pg.119). The comprehensive penal system evolving in the United States was watched abroad with keen interest and by 1839 England, along with most of Europe, had developed similar schemes (Grunhut 1972, pg.57-58). As a colony of Britain, New Zealand followed her lead. Management of the lockups and jails scattered throughout New Zealand was somewhat disordered until prison administration was centralised in 1880. For the next three decades, New Zealand prisons echoed the punitive ideals and austere conditions of the English prison regime. England continued to influence correctional reform in New Zealand which has for the most part tended to emulate international developments. During the Reformatory era in the late 19th century penal ideologies shifted to the belief that offenders could be cured of their criminal ways. It was thus thought that prisons should be used to rehabilitate rather than simply punish inmates and America, particularly captivated by the reformism principle, established a dedicated „reformatory‟ in New York in 1876 (Schmalleger 2001, pg.447-449). The perceived success of the reformatory approach trialled overseas generated hype and enthusiasm in New Zealand and was a leading influence in the beginning of an era of reformism in 1910. Reflecting the rural ethics of Charles Matthews who ran New Zealand prisons during this period, the reformation of prisoners was pursued through the „gospel of hard work‟ which, where practicable, took place outdoors. Completed in 1925 on 1,000 acres of Canterbury farmland, Paparua prison exemplified these principles. In the 70 years after Paparua was constructed, prisoners there engaged in employment and recreation in the open air and compared with today‟s standards, enjoyed some degree of laxity. Almost 100 years on, the medium-security Paparua prison is four times the size it was in the early 20th century and aside from a couple of original exterior walls is a completely different institution to that established by Charles Matthews.