SPRINGFIELD – As Illinois prison officials grapple with shrunken budgets, overcrowding and the governor’s plans to close some facilities, they also are dealing with disturbing reports of recent violence in state prisons that have injured guards and an inmate, and a case where two prisoners reportedly overdosed on heroin, The Associated Press has learned.

Among the incidents in the past six weeks, a Stateville Correctional Center inmate was stabbed nine times in a dispute and an inmate stabbed a guard at another maximum-security lockup at Pontiac, according to Department of Corrections information and interviews after the AP received tips.

Prison workers and their union believe the incidents represent an uptick of trouble inside Illinois penitentiaries, which many say have been overcrowded and understaffed for years.