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The prison officers' union says the latest jail attack shows that guards are not adequately equipped to deal with violent inmates.
A prisoner at Auckland maximum security Prison at Paremoremo is in hospital with serious injuries after being attacked by a fellow inmate - believed to be double killer Graeme Burton - yesterday morning.
Burton is serving a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 26 years for killing Lower Hutt man Karl Kuchenbecker in January last year.
He was on parole at the time after serving 14 years in prison for murder after stabbing Paul Anderson to death outside a Wellington nightclub in 1992.
Corrections Association president Beven Hanlon said prison officers are not equipped to deal with prisoners like Burton.
"This is a person who is not afraid of consequences," he told Radio New Zealand.
"We don't have the facilities to deal with people like this and only only going to get worse if we have three strikes and you get 25 years, or life meaning life.
"We can deal with these people but we have got to have the policies and equipment to deal with them safety, and at the moment we have neither."
Mr Hanlon told the Herald on Sunday that Burton was so dangerous he should be kept in restraints and not allowed to associate with other prisoners.
"He is most definitely a danger...when he gets bored with us, he will have a crack - no doubt about it."
Mr Hanlon said he understood that Burton attacked Headhunters gang member Dwayne Marsh on a landing shared by 12 others.
He said one prison guard went in unarmed and with no protective clothing to tackle Burton and probably saved Marsh's life.
Mr Hanlon said it was unclear what weapon was used in the attack. "It could be anything, it could be his toothbrush. I'm picking it could be a plastic knife or fork, sharpened on concrete."
The Department of Corrections' Auckland manager Wayne Cummins confirmed an inmate was "seriously injured" in the prison yesterday.
"Although full details of the incident have not yet been established, it appears that a prisoner attacked another prisoner using a makeshift weapon. No staff were involved."
- NZPA
