9 Stillwater prison employees hospitalized after possible drug exposure, says DOC

Bayport, Minnesota. — Minnesota Correctional Facility – Stillwater, the state’s largest prison, was temporarily closed Thursday after several staff members possibly came into contact with synthetic drugs.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections reports that an employee became ill after catching an inmate smoking in his cell around 7:45 a.m.

“The employee experienced an adverse reaction that included dizziness, nausea and an increased heart rate. He was transported by ambulance to Lakeview Hospital,” the DOC said.

Six other staff members soon became ill as well before another inmate in the same unit “threw a container of an unknown substance out of his cell, which landed near staff,” the DOC said, causing three more staff members to become ill.

The DOC said a total of 10 employees were exposed to the virus, nine of whom were eventually treated and released from the hospital. One of the employees received Narcan.

The substance found Thursday is still being investigated, but the DOC says one of the inmates told staff he “smoked a stronger than expected dose of synthetic K-2,” also known as MDMB-4en-PINACA.

The DOC states that the synthetic cannabinoid has been found “soaked in paper and dried” in previous prison cases.

DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell says the prison will likely remain on lockdown until Saturday morning.

According to the DOC, there have been about 70 cases of suspected overdoses in Minnesota prisons this year, most of which resulted in Lockdowns that frustrate inmates and staff alike.

A WCCO investigation showed that some facilities are changing how they process mail because of the threat posed by synthetic drugs. John Melvin, director of the DOC's Office of Special Investigations, told WCCO in July that Narcan may be ineffective because of the synthetic nature of the drugs.

“(The drug) can be manufactured, it can be sprayed on and it dries, and then that piece of paper can be cut into little squares and ingested, usually by smoking,” Melvin said. “They make little devices like a cigarette, push it in the end and smoke it like a cigarette and then light it from the electrical outlet in their cells.”

Melvin said the Stillwater prison is one of three facilities testing a new mail protocol, along with MCF-Faribault and MCF-Rush City, where inmates receive photocopies of their mail.

While he expects the new system to stop up to 90 percent of dangerous mail, he cautions that it may take some time for inmates to consume the drugs that have already entered the facilities.

The president of the Oak Park Heights correctional officers' union AFSCME Local 915 said incidents like the one in Stillwater are “all too common” and called for “urgent and immediate action” to prevent drugs from entering prisons through the mail.