A corrections officer has been stood down as police investigate an incident at Otago Corrections Facility earlier this month.
Neither police nor the Department of Corrections were forthcoming with details of the incident which occurred during the weekend of September 16-17.
It is understood the allegations centre on the assault of a prisoner.
A police spokeswoman confirmed police had been notified of the "incident", during which "nobody was injured".
"As inquiries into the incident are ongoing, no further information is available at this time."
Otago Corrections Facility prison director Lyndal Miles said, in a statement, the officer involved had been stood down.
"We take the welfare of staff and prisoners very seriously and prison management are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident," she said.
"The incident happened the weekend of the 16-17 September and the officer was stood down at the beginning of last week."
Last month it was revealed prisoners in a remand wing refused their meals for 24 hours because of threats of violence from a fellow prisoner.
That followed a prisoner being seriously injured in another incident in May, while in February the prison was locked down after three prisoners assaulted three staff at the Milburn facility.
The Otago Daily Times also revealed earlier this year that a female OCF staff member was reinstated by Corrections despite an employment investigation finding she failed to maintain appropriate boundaries with a male prisoner.
The findings of that investigation were overruled by the prison director.
Attempts to contact the Corrections Association for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.
