South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) officials announced plans Thursday to use drones to keep tabs on people behind bars in the state. The news represents an about-face for the department, which fought for years to keep drones away from their facilities, blaming them for delivering contraband to inmates.
The drones have heat-sensing and night vision capabilities and will be used across South Carolina's 21 prisons. SCDC Director Bryan Stirling had two military veterans hired to travel between the facilities, monitoring inmates from 400 feet above with the help of remote controls and video displays.
“No one will even be able to know we're up there, because it's pretty high up,” Stirling said Thursday as the pilots flew the drones in front of a crowd of reporters. “I think you're seeing the future of corrections, right here.”
Stirling said that South Carolina is the first state in the US to use drones to surveill inmates, which he noted the SCDC has been doing for the past few months.
A bill was passed by South Carolina's General Assembly May 17 to ban drones from flying near prisons after a push by SCDC officials, and the state has spent millions installing giant nets to prevent launched objects from coming in. Stirling said in March that 29 drones had flown over state prisons in 2017, according to Greenville News.
After somebody tried to smuggle contraband into South Carolina's…
