offence. Spring Hill was also the scene of the manslaughter of prison officer Jason Palmer. This was the first death of a New Zealand prison officer on active duty. Central region Waikeria Prison Waikeria Prison is located 16 kilometres south of Te Awamutu, at Waikeria in the Waikato region. It was built in 1911 and held 1031 prisoners and employed 480 staff. It used to be New Zealand's largest prison. However, in 2012, Prime Minister John Key announced that some older prisons would close including units at Waikeria. The prison includes several specialist units. It has one of the five Māori Focus Units in New Zealand prisons. The Māori Focus Units aim to bring about positive changes in offenders' thinking and behaviour through the practice of Māori values and disciplines, and specialist Māori programmes. Waikeria also has a Drug Treatment Unit for prisoners with drug or alcohol problems and a Special Treatment Unit (Karaka Special Treatment Unit) which is a 40-bed treatment unit for men who have repeatedly committed serious crimes and are considered to have a high risk of re-offending. Because Waikeria Prison is a large site, the level of physical security varies between different units. The minimum security areas of the prison have fewer physical security feature because minimum security prisoners have been assessed as a minimal risk to the public. Higher security units are surrounded by a highly secure perimeter fence equipped with lighting, surveillance and detection equipment. Between 29 December 2020 and 3 January 2021, twenty-one prisoners, protesting poor living conditions, staged an uprising at Waikeria and lit fires which ultimately destroyed the prison's top facility. The riots came to an end following negotiations involving Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. Tongariro/Rangipo Prison Tongariro/Rangipo Prison began as a prison camp called Rangipo in Tūrangi in 1922. When it started the few inmates were housed in tents, the cookhouse was the only building with corrugated iron roof and walls. To access the site with materials and officers they had to be transported across Lake Taupō to Wihi, near Tokaanu. Then travel by bullock wagon to Rangipo. The Hautu prison site was established in 1926, and the 2 prison camps became combined to be called Tongariro Prison 1958 / 59, a separate entity in 1977. The prison is on a large site of more than 8,000 hectares off the Desert Road near Turangi. Around 4200 hectares of this land