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William Katipa - Source: ONE News -
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Prison officials are confident they responded as soon as they could after an inmate escaped from Waikeria.
They have launched a review after William Katipa broke through a fanlight window in his cell on Monday night.
The 43-year-old is still on the run.
Assistant Regional Manager Dianne Brophy says security staff were alerted when he set off sensors while scaling a security fence.
She says they were able to respond immediately and put escape procedures into action.
Brophy says staff immediately went to the location where the sensors were set off and apprehended a second prisoner also trying to escape.
She says if it is found there are deficits in their procedures they will be doing what they can to mitigate them and prevent another escape.
Brophy says it is not unusual for a prisoner on preventive detention like Katipa to be in a medium-security prison such as Waikeria.
Katipa was sentenced to preventive detention with a 10-year minimum non-parole period in February 2005.
Katipa is described as a male Maori 180 cm tall, of solid build with coloured wavy hair, clean shaven with a dark complexion. It is not known what he was wearing at the time of his escape.
He has a tattoo of a bird on his neck and a glove on his forearm.
Katipa's extensive wrap sheet includes more than 20 convictions - many of them for violence or sexual offending - and he is serving time for raping a 19-year-old mother in front of her two year old daughter.
Police are urging people not to approach.
