Napier Prison

A trip to the old historic Napier Prison had been on our “must visit one day” list for some time and can now be ticked off.  This was the first prison to be built in New Zealand, opened in 1906  and held approximately 50 prisoners.   The historic prison is located on Napier’s Bluff Hill, close to the old quarry where the inmates used to work their hard days’ labour to build the walls that would keep them imprisoned.

We were warmly welcomed, paid our money, collected our audio wands, and set out to explore the old prison.  The old rooms were certainly not noted for their comfort, and were double bunked in later years as the prison roll increased.  Inmates put into solitary confinement had no bed in their cells so had to sleep on the floor with just a blanket – which was taken away at 5.00am each morning.

We walked through the Exercise Yard, and into the Mess Hall.  Food was purchased to a budget, and gruel seemed to feature heavily on the menus in the earlier years.  The Hanging Yard reminded us that the death penalty was meted out here.  Executed prisoners were buried standing up, to ensure they got no rest in eternity.

It is believed that there was a Circuit Judge who travelled around the country delivering the hanging judgement to convicted criminals.  He was accompanied by a horse and cart, several workmen and court officials, and the materials to built a kit set gallows at each destination.  The sentence for murder in former times was death by hanging, and several of the hangings at Napier Prison were carried out Irishman Tom Long, a repeat convict.  The last hanging took place in Auckland in 1957, and the death penalty was abolished in 1989.

Interesting facts we discovered on our tour were:

1:  In order to aid escape one prisoner left his boots as a decoy in front of the toilet, and escaped down the drain.  This scheme was attempted later by a particularly fat prisoner who got stuck in the drain for three days.  He had to be rescued by the fire department using copious quantities of detergent to get him out.

2:  Terry Clarke (Mr Big) was sent to this prison after trying to blow up Napier’s Post Office safe.  While in prison he worked that that dealing drugs would be much more lucrative.  By the late 1960s he was the world’s richest drug baron and the master of disguise.

3:  Prisoners would use cigarette ash, pen ink and toothpaste to make their own ink for tattoos.

4:  Prisoners made alcohol using fruit peelings, water and toothpaste, leaving it to ferment.

5:  Sadly, in the early years of the prison, children as young as eight were imprisoned for petty crime.

It certainly was in interesting visit, finding out about New Zealand’s first prison.  Things were certainly tough in the early days.  After it closed down the buildings were used by the army and went on to become a back packers where you paid for the privilege of sleeping in a cell!  Napier Prison is now in private ownership.

Who are those shifty looking characters?