In June, Stephen Uriah Maddren leaped from the prison after climbing a downpipe on to a prison roof and jumping from a height of two or three storeys to the other side.
The 25-year-old was found seven days later asleep in the hot water cupboard of a shearers' residence in Milton.
"All offenders who have escaped during the last decade have been recaptured and returned to custody," Mr Lightfoot said.
A police spokesman said the number of escapers from police custody had dropped in the past five years, "due to our enhanced intelligence environment ... and the increased number of tactical options we have at our disposal".
The prisoner who remained on the run for the longest in past five years was Kevin Polwart, who escaped from Paremoremo in December 2009.
Kevin Polwart. Photo / Brett Phibbs
He cut his way through two steel perimeter fences, leaving a note on a concrete slab taunting police to "catch me if u can". He was caught 50 days later.
His escape pales in comparison, however, with convict Brandon Pillay who, as the only outstanding prisoner currently listed as escaped and never recaptured, has been absent from his cell for almost 4800 days.
Pillay - also known as Ricardo Pisano - fled a work party from Tongariro/Rangipo Prison in Waikato in August 2001 and resurfaced in May last year in Southampton, when English police arrested him over the death of his flatmate.
He was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment in December last year.
Of the police escapers, 16 of the 469 have been recorded in the police statistics as not having been resolved.
Gavin Knight, statistics manager at Police National Headquarters, said escapers from police custody included "all instances where an individual has been detained prior to escaping for any period of time", not only escapers from police cells.
Figures could represent people who had left a scene where a police officer has told them they were not free to leave a scene or were required to accompany police officers.
