Greg Newbold was incarcerated for dealing heroin, and has since had a successful career as a leading criminologist.
Photo: RNZ / Sharon Brettkelly
Nearly 50 years ago, six of the country’s worst offenders were released from prison for the night for a debate in central Auckland
A safe blower, a killer, and a drug dealer walked out of Paremoremo Prison one day and returned hours later holding a debating trophy aloft.
No, this is not a joke. It is a true story that also involves a kidnap plot against a former deputy prime minister.
Dream Dealer is the memoir of Greg Newbold, heroin-dealer-turned-leading-criminologist, who learned to become a top debater in the maximum security prison.
He recalls the day 49 years ago that Paremoremo let six of the country’s worst criminals out to compete in the finals of the Auckland Debating Association’s Athenaeum Cup at Auckland University’s Maidment Theatre.
“It was the first time it ever happened,” said Newbold, now retired from his Canterbury University job and living in Bay of Plenty.
Newbold was first speaker in the B team which included the “lifer” and the safeblower. The A team comprised a drug offender, a prisoner nicknamed “Nelly Bligh” and a drug importer.
The day of the debate, the prisoners were allowed to wear their ‘civvies’ to leave the prison. Dressed in bell-bottoms, platform shoes, and wide-lapel jacket, Newbold and five other inmates climbed into the van.
“We had a screw for each man,” he said.
“Maximum security was a lot more relaxed than it is now.”
So relaxed that the van did not go directly to the theatre but diverted to the home of their tutor, former Kings College principal Geoff Greenbank, for a buffet of fine food and wine, before continuing on to the theatre where more celebrations were held after the competition.
Newbold said no one considered trying to escape but it did not stop him sneaking outside for a “catch-up” with a young woman friend.
At midnight they all climbed back into the van and returned to loud cheers from inmates.
Fielding two teams in a final was a first for the prison, but for Newbold it was the second time he had left to compete in a debate. The previous year, in 1976, his team debated against the Toastmistresses at Queens Arcade, downtown Auckland.
“That was pretty exciting. In Paremoremo maximum security you’re surrounded all day, you never get outside except to the exercise yard which has big 20-foot-high walls. It’s just a big concrete tub and you wouldn’t ever see any trees or smell the grass or anything like that.”
The debating club was highly respected and debates in the prison with visiting teams were well attended.
Their rivals were educated people like lawyers and accountants but the prisoners had the advantage of time to practise, said Newbold.
“We used to throw everything at it. One of the reasons for the success of the teams is firstly that a lot of the guys in jail are extroverts. This whole thing that people have low self esteem is bullshit. Most criminals have really high self esteem, they have excessive self esteem, they think they’re bloody superman and untouchable and that’s why they get caught and go to jail.
“[That] makes them good debaters and they’re used to telling lies and a lot of time in a debate you have to bluff a bit.”
Most of the debates were held at the prison in the visitors room, another big advantage for the Paremoremo teams.
“Visitors were allowed in to support their own members but the visiting room was full of criminals,” said Newbold. “Half the jail would turn up to the debate and they would be very partisan and they would be laughing and laughing at our team and hooting and booing at the opposing team.”
The debating club had been set up by Sir Don McKinnon in the early 70s before he turned to politics.
Sir Don McKinnon set up the debating club before he turned to politics.
Photo: RNZ / Sharon Brettkelly
He has also written extensively about the experience and describes to The Detail what it was like when outsiders faced off against inmates at the prison.
“Some of them just tried to overplay their hand, like telling a great joke and when it came to the punchline, the inmates could see it coming and they were dead silent,” said McKinnon.
“That speaker was crucified for the rest of the night.”
The do-good speakers who voiced their own ideas on prison reform suffered the worst reactions, he said.
“Part way through the delivery you’d hear an inmate give a very loud yawn. Another time a prison inmate would actually release a very loud fart. This guy’s argument was utterly destroyed.”
Debating, he said, is effective in unifying prisoners, drawing them out to speak in public.
“It is not an alien factor in prisons at all.”
One incident that sticks in McKinnon’s mind involved a kidnap plot by prisoners who were miffed at a decision to restrict their Christmas parcels and the cakes to half the usual size.
“They were going to take hostages over that and demand a two-pound cake,” said Newbold.
Listen to The Detail to hear two versions of the incident from McKinnon and Newbold.
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