Hawke's Bay prison protest: No bribes or promises used to lure inmates off the roof, says Corrections

Department of Corrections chief custodial officer Neil Beales said he understands no bribes or promises were made to lure protesting inmates off the roof of the youth unit at Hawke's Bay Regional Prison.

Six prisoners scaled the building on Monday afternoon and camped on the roof overnight. The next morning one of the group surrendered and came down, and around midday another followed suit.

Beales told AM this morning that negotiations staff focused on communicating to the inmates that there are better ways to deal with their complaints and issues.

"Generally, when we do this, we don't try to make any specific promises at the time," said Beales.

The four who remained on the roof hurled objects, including wooden sticks, at riot squad members and firefighters

before coming down about 1pm yesterday.

Riot squad members and firefighters responded to the incident. Photo / Warren Buckland

A full review of the protest would now be carried out and the matter would be referred to police, Beales said.

"Early indications are that the prisoners were upset because they weren't allowed to go into the unit's sports area yesterday but the reasons for the incident will be the subject of the review."

Beales said those involved will be held accountable and the matter would be referred to police as well.

"And we have our own internal disciplinary procedures that we will be relying on," he said.

How the men made their way to the roof is still under review. Beales said they may have used smashed windows as ledges.

"Some of these units were built quite a long time ago and they're not particularly high and they're not wrapped in razor wire and we wouldn't necessarily want them to be wrapped in razor wire," he said.

The prisoners hurled objects at riot squad members and firefighters yesterday. Photo / Warren Buckland

"But there will be opportunities if people have a look for them to try and exploit; it's our staff that are there to prevent it."

"If we do need to need to strengthen property in any certain place then that is what we'll do, but I am not going to make any assumptions yet as to what did or did not happen."

"We need to get in there, we need to lift the lid up and have a proper review and come to some recommendations and conclusions."

Beales said systems are in place to deal with concerns and issues expressed by inmates.

"If they had a complaint, if they had a problem, we have system to address it – that's what they should have used," he said.

The staff who "got those boys down safely" did an "excellent job", he added.

"All the staff were able to go home safely at the end of the day."