Waseca women’s prison has been on lockdown for two weeks

The federal women’s prison in Waseca, Minn., has been under lockdown for two weeks after nine inmates were hospitalized for drug use, a spokesman said Wednesday.

Two employees at the Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca, were also sent to a hospital for potential exposure to drugs, Donald Murphy of the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in an email.

The low-security federal women’s prison has been on “modified operations” status since Sept. 4, Murphy said. This means that inmates are confined to their rooms and certain areas such as television viewing spaces.

Visits to see inmates are also suspended until further notice, the facility’s website said Wednesday afternoon.

The hospitalized employees have been released from medical care and are back at work, and the inmates have returned to the prison, Murphy said.

The women’s prison in Waseca, about 80 miles south of Minneapolis, has faced significant challenges limiting contraband, specifically drugs, a government watchdog report last year said.

Staff told inspectors that there was an inmate drug problem involving synthetic cannabinoids, also known as K2 or synthetic marijuana, according to the 2023 report by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General.

The drugs were entering the prison through letters and books sent to inmates and during in-person visits, the staff told inspectors according to the 2023 report.

The report also noted that the prison had a significant shortage of correctional officers, frequently pulling staff from other departments away from their regular duties.

The spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Wednesday declined to say what drug was the cause of the lockdown, citing an active internal investigation.

“The institution will return to normal operations status as soon as possible,” Murphy said.

Staff at the prison in Waseca did not respond to a request for comment via calls and an email.

The women’s prison in Waseca was originally built as a university campus, and beginning in 1995 it became a men’s prison. After 2008, the Bureau of Prisons converted it into a women’s institution.

Some 884 inmates were listed as incarcerated in the facility as of Wednesday.