Paremoremo Prison north of Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Corrections has confirmed a prisoner has been injured in a serious assault at Auckland Prison in Paremoremo.
Emergency services were called to the country's most secure jail about 9.45am on Tuesday after reports a man had suffered life-threatening injuries.
Auckland Prison general manager Stephen Parr said staff immediately secured three perpetrators and provided first aid to the victim, who had been taken to hospital for treatment.
He said three prisoners had been segregated and police were at the scene.
Parr said violence in prison would not be tolerated and any offenders would be held to account.
The attack reportedly left a 33-year-old man with life-threatening head injuries.
A St John spokesman said an ambulance and a rapid response unit attended, with one patient transported to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition.
Detective Inspector Simon Harrison, of the Waitematā CIB, said police were working with the Department of Corrections as they investigated the attack.
Parr said Auckland Prison, the country's only specialist maximum security facility, accommodated the country's most dangerous and volatile prisoners.
"Our staff manage some of New Zealand's most dangerous people in a complex and challenging environment. Over 80 percent of the prison population have convictions for violence in their offending histories, and more than 90 percent have had a lifetime diagnosis of a mental health or substance abuse disorder," he said.
Parr said Corrections was constantly working to ensure prisons were as safe as possible for staff and prisoners.
The assault at Paremoremo comes just days after an incident at Spring Hill Corrections Facility in Waikato, where 11 prisoners refused to leave the exercise yard about 3.30pm on Saturday.
The prisoners then lit a number of small fires and damaged prison property.
Corrections said all 11 exited the yard and were secured, and the fires were put out, within two hours.
In that case, Fire and Emergency, St John, police and a specialist Department of Corrections restraint team responded.
The were no reports of injury to staff or prisoners.
The Corrections Association, the union for prison workers, told RNZ staff were facing an increasing number of violent incidents, only some of which the public heard about.
Association president Floyd du Plessis said it was a result of packing more and more prisoners into the same spaces, without enough beds or staff to manage the situation.
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