Several Stillwater prison staff members were taken to the hospital Thursday following an incident that put the facility into a lockdown, Minnesota Department of Corrections officials said. “Several staff were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution,

BAYPORT, Minn. — The Stillwater Correctional Facility was placed on temporary lockdown Thursday after staff members were exposed to an unidentified substance.

Jeff Vars, president of AFSCME Local 915, the union that represents corrections workers, said in a statement that an incarcerated man at the Stillwater facility and another at a medium-security prison in Moose Lake had died from suspected overdoses in the last week.

Nine employees at Minnesota Correctional Facility–Stillwater were taken to the hospital on Thursday after being exposed to a "stronger-than-expected" dose of synthetic marijuana being smoked by an inmate, causing them to fall ill.

The Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater is on "temporary lockdown" after "several staff" were hospitalized, according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC).

The Department of Corrections says the staff members were brought to the hospital out of "an abundance of caution."

At least two staff members from the The Stillwater Correctional Facility in Bayport, Minnesota are in the hospital after being exposed to drugs that arrived in the mail.