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'Life Sentence', a programme in which James McNeish interviews a prisoner in his cell in Auckland Prison about his life and the experience of long-term imprisonment.
'John Smith' talks about his upbringing in a broken home, but doesn't seem to discuss his actual crime [possibly murder?]. He has served seven years so far. Actuality of prisoners and music on their radios, which are allowed to be on at night.
He talks about the physical and psychological experience of long-term imprisonment and mentions Waikeria Prison as an especially bad prison environment. He says he was in Mt Eden at the time of the riot [1965] and after that about a hundred of the prisoners were transferred to Waikeria Prison, with very bad conditions, which he details. He was there for four years. Eleven men were sent to a mental hospital and several cut their wrists. He says the riot might have done some good for the men who followed them into Mt Eden. He bemoans the lack of rehabilitation opportunities.