Prison Drone Smuggling

Drones have become a major topic of discussion and have amassed a huge following in recent years.  Many issues are beginning to be caused by the use of drones in the United States as well as around the world.  There have been instances in which people have gotten into disputes over the use of drones over private property and there have even been multiple instances in which drones have been shot down. 

Another issue that has been an issue for a few years is the use of drones in order to smuggle items into prisons.  With drone technology increasing this is becoming much cheaper as well as easier to do.  As the drones are able to carry larger loads and take more of a beating more and more items will be able to be smuggled into prisons.  Common things that are currently smuggled into prison via drones include cigarettes, knives, cell phones, and other drugs and illicit substances.  The rapid advancement in drone technology has made it difficult for prison guards to monitor the situations in which the drones are able to breach the prison and deposit goods into the prison.  Many of the drones that are used are remotely piloted but many others have become advanced enough that they are autonomous and navigate into the prison using GPS technology integrated into the drones.  The Bureau of Prisons is worried about drones weighing up to 55 pounds that can fly from ground level all the way to 18,000 feet.  They worry that they could have to deal with drones that fly up to 328 feet per second (224mph). 

The widespread issue that this has caused has brought up the issue that there needs to be protocols in place in order to find and intercept (or shoot down) the drones before they are able to breach the prison walls. Because of the extreme nature of the drones that they expect to need to be able to deal with the protocols are not going to be easy to create in a way that will be reasonable and cost effective.  Just think about how hard it would be to scan 18,000 feet of altitude for small drones, typically smaller than 4 feet in any given dimension, going at speeds up to 224 mph.  The Bureau of Prisons is hoping to create some sort of protocol that would allow them to detect drones at one mile away and then track them and either intercept them or shoot them down as soon as possible after that.  To me, if the drones are actually going to be flying at 224 mph and up to 18,000 feet it is going to be nearly impossible to prevent them from getting drones onto the prison yard.  I personally believe that the prisons are better off monitoring for the drones and implementing strict rules with harsh punishments for approaching the drones after they have landed/crashed onto the prison yard to hopefully limit the amount of people who attempt to collect the goods being smuggled into the prison.