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Rimutaka Prison

History

HistoryFrom around 1916 military defaulters were held at Trentham by the Defence Department.

In the late 1910s, due to lack of space and inadequate facilities at the old Terrace Gaol, the government looked for a site for another prison on a railway route in the Wellington region. Wi Tako Reformatory began operation at the Trentham site in June 1919 with around 50 male inmates, mostly military defaulters, who worked to drain the swampy land so it could be farmed. The development had been controversial among local residents, and Justice Minister Thomas Wilford named it after Te Āti Awa chief Wi Tako rather than the locality to avoid upsetting them further. He stressed that Wi Tako was a ‘good conduct’ institution, mostly for well-behaved first-time offenders serving short sentences.

In the 1920s Wi Tako included a brickworks, and a farm producing vegetables as well as farming sheep, cattle and pigs. Presbyterian minister James Holmes ran fortnightly services at the prison; he died in 1927, and in 1929 prisoners built a memorial cairn to him. In the mid-1930s there were concerns that vegetables produced by the prison were competing with private growers in the Hutt Valley. By the 1950s Wi Tako’s pig farm often took out the top awards at Upper Hutt's yearly A & P show.

In 1930 delegates to the conference of the Howard League for Penal Reform visited the prison, which was seen as an exemplar of what the department hoped to achieve at all its sites. Attorney-General Thomas Sidey, who showed the visitors around, commented on Wi Tako’s closeness to nature and said he felt sure that any man who spent some time there could not but be better for it.

In 1967 Wi Tako was completely rebuilt on the site of the old piggery, and Wi Tako Prison was officially opened; by September 1971 it had 187 inmates.

The prison has had strong links with the Upper Hutt community, especially the Māori community, over the years. From the early 1960s Māwai Hakona kapa haka group leader and master carver Jock McEwen taught a number of inmates to carve, and organised for inmates to attend Māwai Hakona practices.

A Wi Tako Inmates Revue was held at Heretaunga College in June 1969 to raise funds for the Te Marua Maori Women’s Welfare League, with local dance band the Hi-Lites playing, and performances by prison inmates of haka, waiata, skits and ‘Some Enchanted Evening’. The crowd of 500 included the mayor and mayoress, prison superintendent W. Garrett and Secretary of Maori Affairs Jock McEwen; the following week the Leader reported that the show provided ‘humour, drama, lovely music and stage settings of artistic merit’.

Until the mid-1980s inmates continued to attend Māwai Hakona practices, travelled with the group to perform and even took part in a film made by the National Film Unit. However from the later 1980s more restrictive policies made it difficult for prisoners to be involved with activities outside the prison.

In 1985 Wi Tako became the first men’s prison to employ a woman prison officer, Celia Lashlie.

Wi Tako became a regional prison around 1983, and around 1986 began holding remand prisoners. Numbers of inmates and staff increased, and in 1990 it changed status to a medium security prison. It was renamed Rimutaka Prison that same year, after a request by Te Āti Awa kaumātua Sir Ralph Love (a descendant of Wi Tako) that the name be changed.

Te Whare Whakaahuru (the Māori Focus Unit) opened in June 1999. In 2010 Rimutaka became New Zealand’s first prison to open a container-cell unit, with units built from refurbished shipping containers.

Since around 2014 Rimutaka has also housed women prisoners. Today it is one of New Zealand’s largest prisons, with over 1000 prisoners, mostly men.

Photos

E. G. Taylor on the firing range, 1937

Silverstream; beautification, Fergusson Drive; view from Hutt River bridge

Celia Lashlie

New unit at Rimutaka Prison

Mural by inmates, Rimutaka Prison

Life Education Trust workbook, 1996

Carving for police station by Rimutaka Prison inmates

Rimutaka Prison; addition of two 60-bed cell blocks

Churches of Christ visitors

Prison art competition entry, 1989

Wi Tako Prison chief farming instructor Peter Edwards retires, 1987

Long-service awards, Wi Tako Prison, 1986

Reverend David Hunter, Wi Tako Prison chaplain, 1986

Welcoming visitors to Wi Tako Prison marae

Rimutaka Prison; new fencing and lighting

Rimutaka Prison extensions under construction

Jacob Warren at Te Omanga Hospice Support Group plant sale

Planting trees in Trentham Memorial Park, 1999

Police bravery awards after hostage drama

Joan Dick, New Zealand's longest-serving prison nurse

Rimutaka Prison art tutor Grant Corbishley, 1992

Nevin Grieve and Sue Reid with hay bales for South Island snow relief

Aidan McLean, Rimutaka Prison programmes manager

Publication

Rimutaka Prison Project

Rimutaka Prison, 2003

Details

Organisation typePrisonDate established1919Geotag^[1]

Also known as

Alternative nameWi Tako ReformatoryFor the years1919–1967

Also known as

Alternative nameWi Tako PrisonFor the years1967–1990

Connections

Related organisationsMāwai HakonaRelated peopleJock McEwen

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