After completing the first two parts of the Quest (finding the girl & choosing what to do with her).

When you go to the prison to talk to the prisoner and pay his bounty - nothing happens.

I have paid the 100 gold Bounty and when I talk to the prisoner it's just a repeated dialogue (same with the Guard).

It appears the prisoner is unable to walk up the steps like he is trying to get to the door but cannot. I even blocked the guard until he was close enough to the door to open it and then blocked the prisoner until he was up the stairs. I then closed the prison door and waited... only to have the prisoner open up the door and go back inside the cell.

After looking on the internet quite a few others are experiencing this problem.

I don't know if this is on the correct sub-forum but as long as someone deals with it that's cool

Same here. Can't get the key from the guards by paying
the fine. They just take the money but dont give up the
key. Just curious, I wonder if you can pickpocket the key?

EDIT: I recently tried to pay the fine again and it worked!
Opened up a new dialogue option with the Alik'r prisoner.