Sounds like someone in South Carolina decided to have themselves a good old-fashioned early-December Southern low boil. Ingredients included raw steak, crab legs, and, of course, Old Bay seasoning. They even planned for after-dinner festivities with a few cartons of cigarettes and, perhaps living dangerously in light of South Carolina’s laws, several large bags of marijuana. Then again, they were already behind bars.
Alas, the crab boil was nixed after the delivery hit a snag when it was intercepted by prison officials. The intended chef and party planner remains an unidentified inmate at the Lee Correctional Institution. It turns out that the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) takes a dim view of contraband being smuggled in via drone drops. At least, that’s the manner in which the SCDC expressed itself while crowing about the seizure on social media.
While the idea of a drone delivery dropping the fixings for an Old Bay crab boil in a prison yard provides fodder for DoorDash jokes, it highlights an ongoing headache for corrections officials. Drone smuggling becomes much less humorous when the contraband includes cell phones, weapons, and hard drugs.
Where Can You Rent a Trebuchet?
The Lee Correctional Institution is located in Bishopville, near the center of Lee County, South Carolina. Housing only male prisoners, the correctional facility features both a medium and a maximum security prison. Built in 1993 and housing about 1,600 inmates, it’s overseen by the S.C. Department of Corrections. The close security (maximum) facility contains prisoners with long-term sentences for violent offenses, along with those deemed to have behavioral issues. This can lead to unfortunate incidents, including a pair of deaths that occurred last week.
Despite the sometimes gentle treatment it receives in movies like “The Shawshank Redemption,” the trafficking of contraband inside prison walls is a serious problem for law enforcement officials. A pack of Marlboros finding its way into a prisoner’s hands may not be cause for alarm, but phones, illegal drugs, and weapons certainly are. Conduits for smuggling can include corrections officers or other prison workers, but the creativity of the criminally opportunistic often proves boundless.
The throwing or even catapulting of contraband items over prison walls became enough of a problem that facilities like Lee Correctional were forced to increase the perimeter heights and install netting to curtail the practice. In response, the suppliers took to the skies.
Do the Captured Drones All Have To Share a Single Cell?
As personal-use drones continued to grow in range and carrying capacity, they became a tool for those looking to smuggle goods into prison yards. It became such a common problem in South Carolina that the state passed legislation in 2023 forbidding the operation of “recreational” drones within 500 feet around or anywhere up to 250 feet above a correctional facility. Doing so is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both. The drone may also be confiscated.
Dropping contraband onto prison property is charged as a felony and can carry a penalty of up to 10 years. The SCDC installed a drone-detection system in four of its facilities in 2024, which also allows system administrators to track the flight path of the drones to identify accomplices involved in smuggling. So far, the fine-dining would-be smugglers in South Carolina remain unidentified on both sides.
Despite these measures, attempts to fly in illicit goods via drones continue to increase at prisons nationwide. Maybe in the near future we’ll see cheesesteaks at Philadelphia prisons or fish tacos in a Los Angeles lock-up.
Related Resources
- Can You Legally Fly a Drone Anywhere? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- First-Ever Charges for Smuggling Greenhouse Gases Into US (FindLaw’s Courtside)
- Prisoners’ Rights (FindLaw’s Civil Rights Law)
