Kelvin Davis has aired his concern about gang influence in New Zealand prisons after an inmate from the Otago Corrections Facility was admitted to hospital with serious injuries last week.
The assault took place around 2.30pm on Friday at the Milton prison.
Detective Sergeant Hayden Smale told the Herald on Sunday that the victim, an inmate at the prison, was in a serious but stable condition at Dunedin Hospital as a result of injuries he received during the assault.
"The assault happened in an exercise yard at the prison and involved members of the Black Power gang," Smale said.
"The victim is not linked or involved with this gang."
Prison director Lyndal Miles said staff responded immediately to provide the victim with medical assistance and he was transported to hospital.
"The alleged perpetrator was removed from the unit and placed on directed segregation.
Police attended the site and are investigating the circumstances of the incident," Miles said.
Davis said the incident was brought to his attention last week and it is currently being investigated by the police.
"I am absolutely concerned about the influence of gangs in our prisons, and have asked officials to look at the strategies that are currently in place and at ways we could look at improving and strengthening them," he said.
The assault follows an incident earlier this year where the Dunedin Court found that violent gang initiations were taking place behind bars.
Patched Black Power member Hirini Desmond Te Runa, 25, had three-and-a-half years added to his nearly three-year sentence for a secret two-week campaign of consensual violence against his cellmate.
While housed in the high-risk prisoner unit he proceeded to beat his cellmate in order to "condition" him to become a member of the gang.
The beatings started on May 6 and continued for nearly two weeks.
Te Runa would strike the victim all over his body, with a particular emphasis on the man's genitals.
During the violent ordeal, the victim did not leave his cell and when prison officers did their rounds he covered his face and body with items of clothing and said he was fine.
However, on May 19 he was found with both eyes filled with blood. He had been punched in the jaw so often that his face was "swollen and unrecognisable" too, the court heard.
Bruises covered the victim's body and he was urinating blood before being admitted to hospital. Te Runa fractured two of the man's ribs and left him with haematomas to both thighs.
Once Corrections discovered what was happening, Miles said, Te Runa was placed in "directed segregation", reclassified as maximum security and transferred to Auckland.
