Prisoners cause another stand-off in Hawke's Bay prison

Published: 7:12AM Monday June 13, 2011 Source: ONE News

There has been another disturbance involving prisoners at Hawke's Bay prison. An eight hour stand-off took place between prisoners and staff last night.

ONE News has been told around 4pm yesterday inmates in the maximum security arm of the prison set off two fire alarms. When staff went to investigate, the prisoners began smashing up furniture, forcing staff to retreat.

No staff were injured but they were unable to re-enter the wing until around midnight when they brought the situation under control.

Last week a group of 12 inmates staged a rooftop protest at Hawke's Bay Prison - with five of them remaining on the roof overnight.

Corrections chief executive Ray Smith said that incident was embarrassing but was being fully investigated.

It's believed the protesters in the earlier incident were Mongrel Mob members and were in the high to medium security unit.

Corrections has not yet commented on the latest incident.

Do you have more information? Email news@tvnz.co.nz

Latest NZ News Video