A roof-top protest at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison has ended.
The protest began on Tuesday evening after a prisoner was told he was being reclassified to maximum security status because of his bad behaviour at the jail.
The Department of Corrections said the prisoner was agitated by the decision and encouraged 11 other inmates to join him in the protest.
Seven prisoners were subsequently locked down while five had gained access to a roof cavity of one of the buildings.
The remaining inmates moved onto the roof itself early on Wednesday morning, but by midday one had decided to come down, and by late afternoon the protest was over.
Corrections Department chief executive Ray Smith says he is happy the protest ended without injury and the individuals are in cells in the at-risk unit.
Mr Smith told Checkpoint the prisoners' actions have resulted in some superficial damage, such as broken glass and furniture, and part of the unit has been secured as a crime scene.
The department's general manager of prison services, Brendan Anstiss, says two perimeter fences surround the compound and there was no risk to public safety.
No prisoner or staff member had received any injury, the Corrections Department says.
Protest 'got out of hand'
A prison guard says the protest got out of hand because the Corrections Department is too risk averse to allow officers to go in with batons and pepper spray.
Beven Hanlon, who is president of the Corrections Association, was working as a guard when the protest started.
He told Checkpoint more than 30 staff with protective equipment, batons and pepper spray were willing to go in, but were not allowed to do their job.
"In the past and in Hawke's Bay prison itself ... we've gone in and dealt with it. It's been done and dusted within an hour or so."
Mr Hanlon says 99% of the time when officers go in in numbers in such situations, prisoners rush into their cells and give up.
