KEY POINTS:
Another prisoner has been stabbed in the same block as RSA killer William Bell.
The man was stabbed in the head and face yesterday morning in Auckland Prison's high-security wing at Paremoremo, six days after Bell was attacked there.
He was in North Shore Hospital last night in a stable condition.
Department of Corrections executive Warren Cummins said: "A prisoner sustained lacerations to his head and face in the incident and has been taken to hospital. The department is treating this matter extremely seriously."
He said police were called immediately to escort those taking the inmate to hospital and the unit was put into lockdown.
Corrections will not identify the prisoner and says the stabbing is a matter to be dealt with by the police.
Bell was stabbed through the eye last Monday allegedly by fellow inmate Dean Shepherd. Bell is serving New Zealand's longest prison sentence, 30 years non-parole, for murdering three people and seriously injuring another at the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA clubrooms in 2001.
Corrections Minister Phil Goff said the two stabbings did not represent a nationwide trend.
"Pare is full of people who are inherently dangerous. That's why they're in a maximum-security institution. The only way to stop it would be to put them all in solitary confinement, and that would be inappropriate."
