19 years in Australian prison service recalled

A man who helped quell a massive prison riot in one of Australia's hardest prisons was back visiting family in Masterton this week.
John Rothery, formerly from Masterton, is winding down from a fascinating career behind bars but on the right side of the law and will soon load up his 4WD for an around-Australia caravan holiday with his wife Jean.
"I am using up my holiday and long service leave and I am going back to Perth to hand in my notice from mid-March."
Retirement will bring to an end 19 years as a prison officer for the man who started his working life on an assembly line at N.R. Cunningham Ltd making Norge and HMV refrigerators, deep freezers and washing machines and who ended up assistant superintendent at Casuarina maximum security prison, in charge of prison security.
Nine years ago he was at the forefront of quelling a Christmas Day riot caused by unrest over overcrowding in which groups of prisoners armed with iron bars, pool cues, broom handles, pieces of concrete and generally anything they could get their hands on attacked staff.
The rioters broke into the prison infirmary, grabbing drugs.
"Then they just went mad."
The riot was finally put down when a specialist emergency squad was called in.
"Being Christmas Day, one or two of the squad had imbibed a bit, but the prisoners got to know they were on their way and knew the game was up."
Prison staff who had been involved in the notorious Fremantle Prison riots later said the Casuarina riots were far worse with vicious one-on-one fighting they were sure would have ended in multiple deaths if it hadn't been for the timely arrival of the special squad.
Despite that, Mr Rothery said in his 19 years as a prison officer he had never been personally threatened by a prisoner.
He puts a lot of that down to the fact he led a "colourful life" as a child.
"For that reason I had a feel for where a lot of them were coming from."
Mr Rothery said as a rule of thumb he has found most "career criminals" easy enough to rub along with.
"They look upon being a criminal as a career and being jailed is part of the job."
He has spent nearly all his time in the job at Casuarina, apart for his first few months as a fully fledged officer which were spent at Fremantle jail as it wound down to being closed.
Over the years there was only a single prison escape when a prisoner took advantage of a rare slip-up in prison management.
"He managed to jump into a box and was taken out of the prison in one of our own trucks, being on the run for three months before being recaptured in Darwin."
On first going to Australia in 1979 Mr Rothery worked in retail, becoming a warehouse manager.
"My wife worked in the public service and came home one day to tell me they were recruiting prison officers and said why don't you have a crack at it."
He is back in Wairarapa visiting his three sisters Heather Rothery, Toni McKelvey and Esther Oliver and his brother Darryl Rothery, who lives in Greytown and has his own claim to fame, having made shoes for film star Anna Paquin when she first launched her career on screen.
Two other sisters, Una and Rae, live out of the district.
John Rothery's career and those of his fellow officers featured on a televison show filmed for the National Geographic Channel that was shown throughout the world.