Claudia and Blake Hotton, whose father Wayne died in Mt Eden Prison under Serco's watch.

A father-of-three has died after being subjected to violent bullying in the troubled Mt Eden remand prison, devastating his family and striking a final blow to the management of the private facility.

The death of Wayne Hotton while under 24-hour suicide watch is the latest horror story to emerge from the Auckland central remand prison, run by private company Serco on contract to the Department of Corrections.

The Corrections Minister has announced a crack team of public prisons managers and officers will seize back control of the day-to-day running of Mt Eden from tomorrow, while several investigations are conducted into allegations of organised fight clubs and repeated violent assaults.

Serco faces large fines and possibly the termination of its contract.

The company flew out some of its top executives and put them up in Auckland's five-star Langham Hotel, just up the road from the prison, while they tried to regain control of the violent prison. But this weekend, Serco managing director Paul Mahoney flew back home to Australia after losing the confidence of minister Sam Lotu- Iiga .

Wayne Hotton with his youngest daughter.

Hotton's death last September is under investigation by police, the coroner and the chief inspector of prisons. Corrections said the death was a "tragedy" and the department would also look at how Hotton's family was communicated with.

The family says they have not heard from Serco since the day Hotton died.

Labour's Kelvin Davis said that was unacceptable and the family deserved answers. "They weren't the ones in prison but it's almost like they're being punished by not being informed about what's going on."

Cassandra Harwood, Hotton's partner, has written to Lotu- Iiga asking that Serco be permanently removed from the running of the prison.

Harwood backed a call for the formation of an independent prisons inspectorate to investigate such incidents, saying it would be more objective than the existing controls, which had failed to stem violence .

Hotton, 45, from the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland, was described by his family as a good man whose life unravelled because of a methamphetamine addiction. He was remanded, facing drugs charges.

He'd been in solitary confinement for three weeks because of concerns over bullying and his mental health. He was on 23-hour lockdown and under constant video surveillance.

But police have told the family that the cameras in Hotton's cell were covered before he died.

Daughter Claudia, 20, said that should have aroused suspicion. "Someone should be watching the cameras, you would presume, and when it goes dark it should be, 'what's going on?'"

Wayne Hotton with his daughter after her birth.

She wanted an apology and explanation about how her father died.

"They have that level of care that they have to provide, and for our dad ... he wasn't cared for how he was supposed to be."

Cassandra Harwood said the last time she spoke to Hotton he sounded "completely broken".

He was friendly, helpful and well-liked, she said, but struggled with his addiction. He was not violent and wanted to change his life and get treatment.

Hotton had an inner ear infection and was in constant pain. Other prisoners kept stealing his pillow.

Harwood said Hotton told her he wanted to plead guilty so he could be moved to another prison.

He wasn't getting any counselling, she said. "He just wanted to get out."

Serco operations director Scott McNairn said: "Mr Hotton's death was a tragedy. We are committed to preventing anyone from coming to harm."

He said the death was immediately reported to police and Corrections and a senior staff member accompanied police to notify the family, leaving contact details.

The prison also made a contribution to assist with the funeral and other costs, McNairn said. He couldn't comment further while the death was under investigation.

Davis said Hotton's death raised numerous serious questions, including how long the video camera was covered before anyone noticed.

"There must be some sort of record of how long that was, even if it was 20 minutes," Davis said. "That's just unacceptable."

He was also concerned that Hotton had talked about pleading guilty "just to get out of the hellhole".

"How many other innocent people have pleaded guilty just to get out of this torture?"