Prison guards stabbed, WA union says

Two guards at Perth's maximum security prison were stabbed by a mentally ill inmate over the weekend, the WA Prison Officers' Union claims.

A senior officer at Casuarina prison was stabbed in the face with a pen, inflicting a three centimetre gash under his eye.

Another officer was stabbed in the torso.

A third guard had hot coffee poured on him.

All of the incidents occurred on Saturday while the prisoner was being transferred to a more secure unit, a spokeswoman for WAPOU said.

Two of the officers had to be transferred to hospital and have not returned to work.

Union secretary John Welch said the senior officer was lucky not to have lost an eye.

Mr Welch said the prisoner had been assessed as having serious mental health issues and had just returned to jail after being treated at the maximum security Frankland Centre at Graylands Hospital.

He said prison staff had been told that the facility was short of beds, so prisoners were being released back into the prison system.

Mr Welch said he understood that the Plaistow unit at Graylands had been closed, which had reduced the bed capacity at the facility.

"It is not good enough that people who have been assessed as having serious mental health problems are pushed back into the prison system," he said.

"Our members are not trained or equipped to deal with these people."