{"id":123972,"date":"2025-11-08T03:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T03:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123972\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T03:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T03:19:10","slug":"former-prison-officer-rhonda-hapi-smith-shares-life-behind-the-wire-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123972\/","title":{"rendered":"Former prison officer Rhonda H\u0101pi-Smith shares life behind the wire in new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

At work, she had a tough exterior to shield herself from constant verbal abuse, and she knew how to handle herself in a fight if needed.<\/p>\n

As a woman working in men\u2019s prisons<\/a>, she had to work twice as hard to prove that she was not someone to be messed with. <\/p>\n

But over the years, her emotional armour began to crack. She longed to show vulnerability. However, after so long building a reputation for toughness, her cries for help often went unheard. <\/p>\n

\u201cI kept getting the response, \u2018You\u2019re hard, Rhonda. You\u2019ll handle it,\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cI started to think, \u2018What do I do if I can\u2019t get through it?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\"RhondaRhonda had to work twice as hard as a woman working in men\u2019s prisons. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

And so, she started a Facebook page called Memoirs of a Female Prison Officer, hoping to find fellow officers who understood her struggle. <\/p>\n

She reflects, \u201cIt was a place for me to vent, but I also thought, \u2018If this can help somebody, I\u2019m happy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On long night shifts, she always dreamed of writing a book<\/a>. When she retired from the job eight years ago, she finally had the freedom to do so. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really healing process for me,\u201d she smiles. \u201cI can\u2019t believe someone saw my words and was interested in me telling my story.\u201d <\/p>\n

Violence was an unavoidable part of the job and when riots broke out, Rhonda was part of the team that would restore order. <\/p>\n

In the 1990s, just six months after joining the service, she became one of the first women invited to join the elite riot squad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They were the last line of defence when chaos erupted \u2013 decked out in heavy protective gear, wielding large shields and trained to move as an impenetrable wall to regain control.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rhonda attended riots of every size, but one of the most memorable came when a group of prisoners, drunk on homebrew, started tearing up their unit.<\/p>\n

In the past, the prison worked to keep Mongrel Mob and Black Power members separated to keep peace. But the higher-ups decided they were done placating the gangs and had started mixing them. <\/p>\n

With homebrew in their bellies, the two factions had formed a temporary truce to wreak havoc and demanded to be returned back to their separate units.<\/p>\n

Rhonda was one of 40 officers who stepped into the fray. <\/p>\n

For more than three hours, they faced down prisoners hurling pipes and brandishing crude weapons. <\/p>\n

\"RhondaRhonda realised she had nothing left to give the job and never went back. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was scary and vicious,\u201d recalls Rhonda. \u201cThe level of violence was off the charts. But we had trained hard. Once the switch was turned, we were on. We didn\u2019t have to say anything to each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 2017, while on medical leave, Rhonda realised she had nothing left to give the job. She never went back \u2013 even to collect her things. She just quietly closed that chapter and walked away.<\/p>\n

After years of scanning every room for threats and keeping her emotions under lock and key, she finally chose peace.<\/p>\n

Though adjusting to civilian life has brought its own challenges, she\u2019s embracing what comes next. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have PTSD<\/a> from the constant stress and some of the situations I faced,\u201d explains Rhonda. \u201cI\u2019ll have that for the rest of my life. It\u2019s really hard to try and find your place in society. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m really glad I left when I did because now I\u2019m living life. My days are filled with creating new and lovely memories.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"InsideInside the Wire: True Stories from a New Zealand Prison Officer. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

Inside the Wire: True Stories from a New Zealand Prison Officer (HarperCollins NZ, rrp $37.99) is on shelves now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At work, she had a tough exterior to shield herself from constant verbal abuse, and she knew how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,74,4057,2108,12070,9828,25534,2209,793,2740,22220,42,86540,78,232,16099,424,13840,3025,117,43,10932,8442,2961,14718,86539,2552,180,24831,3934,223,4468,86541,210,40,38,41,39,5259,86542,18324,19658],"class_list":["post-123972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-after","tag-behind","tag-book","tag-certain","tag-different","tag-drifting","tag-father","tag-felt","tag-former","tag-going","tag-headlines","tag-hpismith","tag-in","tag-jobs","tag-kind","tag-life","tag-like","tag-most","tag-new","tag-news","tag-officer","tag-prison","tag-pull","tag-purpose","tag-rhonda","tag-service","tag-shares","tag-siblings","tag-structure","tag-the","tag-thing","tag-thirties","tag-through","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-toward","tag-unsatisfying","tag-wasnt","tag-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}