Abused teenager recounts time in Rangipo prison: ‘like nothing else on earth’

By Andrew McRae for RNZ

A man who went through state care in foster care, a children’s home, remedial training and finally prison, believes his life has been delayed by at least 30 years because of the way he was treated and the physical and psychological abuse he received. .

Aaron, who is 50, came from a broken home and his interview with RNZ is the first time he has spoken publicly about his experiences in caregiving.

He lived on the street for a year at the age of 9.

Aaron ended up at the Stanmore Road Children’s Home in Christchurch at age 13.

His stepfather would beat him if he ever misbehaved and one day he confronted him and punched him back. The police were called and Aaron was sent to Stanmore.

One of her earliest memories of being in the children’s home was watching drug addicts use needles. “It was a violent place.”

He said that those who ran the house put one of the older children in charge as the kingpin to make the decisions.

” Anyone who did not do what he wanted or misbehaved would get others to beat him up. That was pretty normal. ”

He said he was never sexually abused like some of the other boys in the house at the same time, but there was a lot of physical violence.

Aaron was sent back to the Stanmore Road home when he was 14 or 15 after fighting and assaulting someone.

At 16 he was sent to Rangipo Prison (now Tongariro Prison) for three months in the center of the North Island for what was then called corrective training.

A place of constant violence
He describes it as by far the worst place he’s ever been. “It was quite unreal.”

He believes that all the officers were ex-military.

He said prisoners were forced to run everywhere and work in forest blocks and there was a lot of violence. “Lots, all the time.”

” You wouldn’t look at a prison officer, they would just beat you up.

“I had the officers beat me, strangle me, do dirty tricks like stick the fire hose through the window in the middle of the night and then turn it on.”

He said inmates would have to do a 20-kilometer run every weekend, and while he was lucky to be fit, others were not.

” You would get a new guy there and he wouldn’t know what was going on and they would be out of shape and decide to get on the truck that accompanied the runners, big mistake.

” In the back of the truck there were always half a dozen officers smoking drugs, so whoever went to the truck took a hell of a beating and was ejected about 60 seconds later.

“They were covered in blood and sometimes we helped them up and other times they forced us to do push-ups while they recovered and ran again, but they ran after that,” he said.

Self-harm an option
Aaron said some of the inmates took desperate measures to get out of Rangipo. This included self-harm to be transferred.

“People tried to break their arms all the time or break a bone because if you couldn’t work there you couldn’t stay there and you had to go to a main prison.

” I saw a boy, a nice young Maori man, he got to work first, he jumped out of the truck first and grabbed an ax that was used to cut brush in the forest and he walked behind a bush and cut his foot, telling the boss that he had slipped with the ax.

“ His boot was flapping and he had practically cut off the toe of his foot. ”

He said that the inmates would fight among themselves but that if they were caught they would end up getting beaten by “some screws” (prison officials).

At age 18, Aaron was found guilty of a series of charges including murder, serious bodily injury and assault, and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.

He turned five and a half years old, but said the three months in Rangipo were much more difficult.

“Before going to Rangipo, I think I was very lucky to have lived on the streets when I was 9 or 10 years old because it hardened me for that.”

Possibility of prison to ‘work things out’
He was 24 when he got out of jail and has tried to stay on the right track ever since.

“Prison is probably what I needed for me as it gave me time to stop and start figuring things out.”

He married shortly after and moved to Australia working as a diamond driller and in mining.

He returned to New Zealand and studied an adult construction apprenticeship and now has his own construction company employing people.

“A lot of people who know me wouldn’t know about my past.”

Set up both to fail and to cope
Aaron is thinking about telling his story to the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care.

” The system somehow prepared me for a life of failures, but it also prepared me to deal with some of the things I went through in other ways.

“I think the main thing in my life that probably impacted him the most was the three months in Rangipo. That place really didn’t look like anything on earth.

“I look at those guys that I was with in Rangipo and surely they were victims and have had other victims and I think it’s just a vicious cycle and it has to be stopped somewhere.”

He said that time in Rangipo simply made them more difficult, which has not benefited them, their families, or society.

” I don’t know if what happened can be corrected. There are still things in my life that I find myself doing and sometimes I have to go out and say, ‘well that’s not really what I want to do and that’s not what I want to be’.

“I have to stay in control sometimes because some of those things can happen naturally and you don’t even realize it before you get to the middle.

“There is a lot of hope for the next generation, that’s for sure, but it has to start now.”

Where to get help:

• Life line: 0800 543 354 (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 SUPPORT) (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: 0800 376 633
• Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
• Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (from 13:00 to 23:00)
• Helpline for depression: 0800 111 757 (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week)
• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
• Helpline: 1737

If it is an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.