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Auckland maximum security Prison at Paremoremo - Source: ONE News -
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Murder victim Liam Ashley's family are questioning how his killer managed to arm himself and take a hostage at New Zealand's toughest prison.
They are angry that the prison failed to keep the man who strangled their 17-year-old son and brother under control.
George Baker is serving a life sentence at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo for killing Ashley in a Chubb prison van in 2006.
But on Thursday he took a fellow inmate hostage , sparking a 12 hour a hostage drama. When he gave himself up, Baker was allegedly found with a number of makeshift knives.
"He is a waste of space. I can only say bad things about him. I don't like him at all...I hate with a vengeance," says Liam's sister Bailey Ashley.
The family want to know how incidents like this can keep happening .
"It's the same person, it's happening with Corrections. Do your job," says Liam's mother Lorraine.
Baker was in the recreation room in the Special Needs Unit of the prison when the drama unfolded.
ONE News understands he asked another prisoner - a sex offender in his 80s - to play pool, and then jammed a door behind them.
"Baker is a very disturbed prisoner and he can be quite volatile but during the incident it looked like he was reasonably calm," says Northern Regional manager Warren Cummins.
Sources have told ONE News that Baker was armed with several makeshift weapons, including one fashioned with a razor blade.
Corrections has refused to give specifics about possible weapons.
"Baker, by virtue of the fact he lives inside a cell, lives inside a prison which is built of materials, you can't physically stop someone from crafting a weapon," says Cummins.
The prison say Baker's cell would have been searched in the previous 48 hours and its initial investigation shows procedures were followed.
"We can never truly read the mind of someone who is disturbed," says Cummins.
But Baker has attacked before, recently cutting a guard with another makeshift weapon. And ONE News understands he has also been self mutilating.
Beven Hanlon from the Corrections Association says it is about managing inmates appropriately and "having the guts to actually do it properly".
The union says that given Baker's recent violent history he should not have been allowed to socialise with other inmates.
And Hanlon is also questioning whether enough staff were on shift to deal with him.
"It is fantastic that no one was injured but for 12 hours we had no control of the prison," he says.
Meanwhile the Ashleys have no confidence in the Corrections Department.
"I think that is a question you should be asking all of New Zealand, not me," says Liam's mother Lorraine Ashley.
"I have no faith."
Praise and criticism
The government is praising police and prison staff over their handling of the incident. Police and Corrections Minister Judith Collins says she is very proud of their work that saw an extremely volatile incident brought to a safe conclusion.
Collins says the response is a testament to the skills and training of both police and Corrections officers.
"Incidents such as this demonstrate the bravery and operational expertise that makes our Police and Corrections staff among the finest in the world. It reminds us of the dangers they face every day while keeping the public safe," says Collins.
However the Sensible Sentencing Trust says negotiating with the killer sends all the wrong signals. Spokesman Garth McVicar says Baker wants to make a name for himself and by negotiating with him it allowed him to hold society to ransom.
McVicar says if Baker ended up killing himself or his hostage they would not have been a loss to society.
But Collins says it's important to remember even the worst criminal has a family and often has people who care for them. She says it's not the role of Corrections or police officers to adopt the ideas McVicar puts forward as their job is to protect the public, the staff and inmates.
And the Mental Health Foundation wants prisons to focus more on inmates' mental health needs. Chief executive Judi Clements says when people are locked away, they are cut off from their support networks.
Clements says she's not saying criminals should not be locked away, but she wants to ensure their mental health problems don't get worse.
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