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Waikieria inmates lit fires and then helped get eight other inmates out of their cells during the riot.
All 17 men charged for their alleged involved in Waikeria prison’s fiery riot have international gang connections, it has been revealed. The revelation came during at Thursday’s Justice Select Committee where it was also revealed how eight of the inmates were released from their cells to join their fellow rioters. The six-day riot in late December saw much of the “top jail” complex at the prison left in ruins, with rows and rows of roofs collapsed and the insides of buildings incinerated.
Corrections has defended the implementation of its Māori prison reduction strategy to MPs, saying that despite delays caused by Covid-19, it was on track.
At a press conference tonight Corrections Chief Executive Jeremy Lightfoot acknowledged that successive Ombudsman reports found prisoners did not have access to the complaints process. Prison abolitionist group People Against Prisons Aotearoa, who have been .