Dave Pattinson, prison director at Northland Region Corrections Facility - also known as Ngāwhā Prison - said there was no risk of the man escaping from prison and no threat to public safety.
The prisoner was contained within his unit's secure perimeter fence at all times.
"Staff did an excellent job calmly de-escalating the situation without any injuries to staff or prisoners. There was no significant damage to prison property," Pattinson said.
The prisoner voluntarily climbed down and was transferred to the intervention and support unit at Auckland Prison this morning.
"He remains segregated and is being monitored and managed closely to ensure his ongoing safety and wellbeing. The prisoner will be charged through our internal misconduct system and his security classification will be reviewed," he said.
Ngāwhā is a low-to-medium security prison but the Advocate understands the man was being held in a "separates unit" used for problematic prisoners.
Pattinson said the remaining prisoners within the unit were temporarily relocated to another unit within the prison.
They would remain there until the area was fully assessed. The remainder of the prison was operating as usual, he said.
More action could be taken depending on the outcome of the review.
Pattinson hinted that mental issues played a part.
"Our role has expanded in recent years as we find ourselves having to manage people with significant mental health and behavioural issues, and our frontline staff work with some of New Zealand's most complex and challenging people," he said.
"Regardless of whether we think someone should be in our custody, we make every effort to ensure their mental wellbeing and physical safety. This can be extremely challenging for our frontline staff who do an incredible job working with often volatile people. We have a range of work under way through our mental health strategy, which includes doing more to upskill our frontline staff in identifying and managing people's needs."
