Spring Hill Prison riot: Inmates secured, fires extinguished, lockdown over

Spring Hill Corrections Facility went into lockdown after prisoners refused to leave an exercise yard and lit fires. Photo / NZME

A lockdown at Spring Hill Prison has ended without injury after 11 inmates began rioting and starting fires in the exercise yard.

Emergency services scrambled to the Waikato Corrections facility about 3.30pm when a group of prisoners refused to leave the exercise yard and began lighting small fires on the concrete, Corrections commissioner of custodial services Leigh Marsh said.

As of about 5.30pm, all the prisoners had left the yard and been secured, with the small fires put out, Marsh said.

“Corrections staff did an excellent job safely bringing this afternoon’s incident at Spring Hill Corrections Facility to an end, without any injury to staff or prisoners.”

The incident was contained to the yard, and there was no threat to the safety of the public or the wider prison, Marsh said.

“This behaviour will not be tolerated and the prisoners involved will be held to account. Corrections will carry out a review into the incident, and will also refer the matter to police.”

Marsh acknowledged the support from police, St John and Fire and Emergency New Zealand, all of which responded to the incident.

An initial statement from Corrections said 10 prisoners were involved. This has been revised to 11.

Fire and Emergency shift manager Michael Anderson earlier said they received a call at 3.18pm reporting a building fire at the Waikato prison.

They sent eight engines, including four fire trucks, two water tankers, one ladder truck and a command unit to the scene.

“The situation is developing,” Anderson said at the time.

Spring Hill Corrections Facility in the Waikato is one of the country’s biggest prisons. Photo / Google Earth

When asked whether firefighters had been able to access the fire yet, he said they were liaising with the Corrections staff.

He could not say how large the fire was.

Police said they were advised of a reported disorder and fire at Springhill Corrections Facility about 3.50pm.

“Officers are in attendance and will assist as required.”

Hato Hone St John said it was notified of an incident at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility at 3.46pm.

It responded to the scene with two ambulances, one rapid response unit, two managers and one first response unit “as a precaution”.

Spring Hill is located on a 215ha site near Meremere in the Waikato and is one of the country’s biggest prisons.

History of incidents at Spring Hill Prison

In 2022, two Corrections staffers were assaulted, one of whom was hospitalised, after a violent afternoon at the prison.

The first incident happened when a prisoner who was on the phone began assaulting a staff member and a second prisoner then joined the attack.

The prison’s site emergency response team, a unit of prison officers specially trained for handling serious disorder, was deployed and both prisoners were restrained.

The staff member was taken to hospital for treatment of head injuries.

The second incident happened in the same unit as the first assault, when a prisoner launched an attack on an officer during the prison lock-up period. He was immediately restrained and relocated to the management unit.

Then last year, two inmates were charged after climbing on to the prison roof and staying there for more than five hours.

In a statement at the time, general manager Scott Walker said staff immediately responded after two prisoners climbed on to the roof of a single-storey unit inside the prison.

“The prisoners were contained within the secure perimeter of the prison’s unit at all times. There was no threat to the wider security of the prison and no threat to public safety at any time,” Walker said.

Prison negotiation teams and advanced control and restraint teams spent more than five hours de-escalating the situation at the Hampton Downs facility.

“The prisoners voluntarily climbed down off the roof at approximately 9.30pm,” Walker said.

More to come