Drones pose new challenge for prisons

Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, ILL.

Wily inmates and their associates on the outside are deploying drones to deliver drugs, cellphones, and other contraband to prison yards, leaving prison guards and correctional authorities trying to decide how to deal with the new technology.

After smuggling incidents around prisons in Maryland, Ohio and Oklahoma, Illinois lawmakers are proposing legislation to penalize the activity, even though the state has yet to see an incident on its own turf. Wisconsin and Michigan also have pending legislation to criminalize the use of drones over prisons.

The idea for the Illinois measure came from the state’s Department of Corrections. Though drones haven’t been a problem yet, the department “is taking a proactive approach to ensure it does not” become one, spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said.

“It’s like anything, new technology brings new problems,” said Sen. Tim Bivins, a Republican sponsoring the Illinois legislation. Bivins’ bill would add an extra year of prison to inmates involved in bringing contraband into prison with a drone.

In Ohio, a drone delivering drugs to a prison in Mansfield in July triggered a fight among inmates when the package with heroin, marijuana, and tobacco was dropped in the yard. Maryland police arrested two men planning to use a drone to drop off drugs, pornography and a cellphone into a prison in Cumberland in August. And in October, prison officials at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary found a drone that crashed on facility grounds with hacksaw blades, a cellphone and heroin.

Knowingly taking aerial images of a correctional institution also would be punishable with a felony charge under Bivins’ bill. That’s because in addition to being worried about contraband, officials also are concerned that drones could be used to plan escapes or other crimes by capturing videos or photographs of a prison’s layout.