By Kevin Fixler, Alex Brizee
The Idaho Statesman
BOISE, Idaho — With illegal items on the rise in the Idaho prison system, including attempts to introduce them with drones near the main corrections complex south of Boise, a state lawmaker has proposed a bill to ban unmanned aircraft from flying near prison facilities.
Rep. Ted Hill, R- Eagle, aims to help ease the Idaho Department of Correction’s efforts to prevent prisoners from obtaining contraband, including cellphones, drugs and weapons. A retired U.S. Navy combat fighter pilot, Hill said it’s the first in a series of bills he foresees to get ahead of challenges posed by drones — starting with halting prohibited items from landing in the prison yard.
“This bill will allow the Department of Correction and law enforcement to take reasonable measures against drones and drone operators that are operating in a nefarious manner,” Hill told the House Judiciary Committee on Monday. “The drones are tremendously threatening.”
“Detecting them is difficult; Stopping them is extremely difficult,” he added.
If passed into law, House Bill 499 would set a punishment of up to one year in prison or a fine between $2,000 and $5,000 for flying a drone in the restricted airspace within the proximity of the prison complex. The complex has six state correctional facilities, including Idaho’s maximum security prison.
A revised version of Hill’s bill with technical changes was reintroduced Friday morning in the committee. It specified the crime would be charged as a misdemeanor and detailed airspace parameters near and over the prison complex.
“As of now, there is no law specific to drone flying over a prison with penalties if someone does,” Hill said in an email to the Statesman. “This law will be specific for any encroachment of the prison perimeter by a drone, nefarious or not. Providing contraband into a prison, by whatever source, is a separate crime and a felony.”
Other states ban drones near prisons
Since June 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration has restricted drones from flying over federal prisons under a special security authority. But state prisons are not eligible unless deemed a national security concern by the Justice Department, an FAA spokesperson said in an email to the Statesman.
A new carve-out to pursue restricting drone flights over state prison facilities was included in the federal law in 2024 that funded and reauthorized the FAA . That rulemaking process remains under development, the FAA spokesperson said.
Federal law also prohibits shooting a drone out of the sky.
“You can’t shoot these things down like a duck,” Hill said Monday. “They’re going 50 mph, you can’t get your shotgun and shoot them. You can’t.”
In the meantime, other state prison systems in the U.S. have faced the issue of drone drops. At least seven states have passed laws that ban the use of unmanned aircraft over its prisons, including Florida, Nevada and Georgia.
The Idaho prison system has seen a recent increase in the use of drones to drop contraband over its walls, IDOC Director Bree Derrick told the same House committee last March. Over the past year, drones have entered the secure perimeter of the prison complex on “several” occasions, IDOC spokesperson Ryan Mortensen told the Idaho Statesman.
“Contraband remains an ongoing threat to the safety and security of Idaho’s prisons. As technology evolves, so do the methods by which contraband is introduced,” he said in an email.
Derrick’s predecessor, former IDOC Director Josh Tewalt, advocated last year for supplemental funding from the Idaho Legislature to acquire a drone detection system for the prison complex. The budget request totaled $385,500 for a pilot program, which Mortensen said ended in November.
At least one suspected attempt to drop contraband into the prison complex with a drone took place in 2024, Tewalt previously told the Statesman. Two more happened in January 2025, he told the finance committee at the time.
“We enjoyed a period of time when we were not dealing with drones,” he said. “It’s not just a threat that we are trying to anticipate around the corner — it’s here.”
Prisoner escape put spotlight on drones
The heightened attention paid to drones near the prisons outside of Boise came after a violent incident in which a prisoner escaped during a March 2024 visit to the hospital for treatment. He used a contraband cellphone to plan an ambush with a former prisoner, and three correctional officers were injured by gunfire in the attack, but survived.
A statewide manhunt ensued to locate prisoner Skylar Meade, who was assisted by Nicholas Umphenour, before they were apprehended 36 hours later in Twin Falls. During that window until they were captured, law enforcement in North Idaho suspected them of killing two men: 83-year-old James Mauney, of Juliaetta, and 72-year-old Gerald “Don” Henderson, of Orofino.
It remains unclear how Meade, who was housed in solitary confinement at the maximum security before his escape, was able to obtain the cellphone. To aid their escape plan, the two men discussed where to buy ammunition, and also shared which guards would be carrying weapons, according to text messages presented in court.
Tewalt did not rule out the possibility that the confiscated cellphone came into the prison by way of a drone.
“The level of sophistication that is being deployed today to introduce contraband in the correctional facilities is unlike anything that any of us in the field have ever seen,” he said last year. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.”
Aside from the drone technology, IDOC requested more supplemental funding from the Legislature for software to transcribe phone calls and technology to digitize prisoners’ mail.
“It doesn’t take the attempts to introduce contraband off the table, but it allows us to plug one hole and redeploy resources elsewhere,” Tewalt told the finance committee at the time.
Now, Meade, 33, and Umphenour, 30, will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Both men were handed decade-long prison sentences after each of them pleaded guilty to several felonies in Ada County related to the escape. And, any chance they had of parole vanished after the two men were offered plea deals in the murders of Mauney and Henderson, of Orofino.
According to Idaho State Police, Mauney, who was last seen walking his dogs north of Lewiston, was found dead in a desolate area near Leland. On the same day, deputies from neighboring Clearwater County found Henderson’s body in his cabin outside Orofino, where police also found Mauney’s dogs, and shackles left behind by Meade.
Meade pleaded guilty through an Alford plea to the two counts of first-degree murder and is expected to be sentenced to life in prison next week. An Alford plea carries the same weight as a guilty plea, but the defendant does not admit guilt, only that there’s enough evidence to convict.
Umphenour, meanwhile, hasn’t officially pleaded guilty, but reached a plea deal with Nez Perce and Clearwater prosecutors. According to court records obtained by the Statesman, he’s scheduled for a change of plea hearing on Feb. 10, and is expected to enter an Alford plea as well.
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