By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A recent drone drug drop in a prison yard near Mansfield wasn’t a first for Ohio’s prison system.
A wrecked drone laden with more than six ounces of marijuana — enough for nearly 200 joints — was found by a corrections officer on May 31 inside the North Central Correctional Institution near Marion.
And, another downed drone, which may not have carried contraband, was found by an inmate on January 4 at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus.
A public-records request by The Dispatch for prison reports involving drones unveiled the unsuccessful prison flyovers.
The latest drone incident, on July 29 at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, remains under investigation by the State Highway Patrol. Troopers are attempting to determine who was piloting the device.
The drone deposited a package containing tobacco, marijuana and heroin before departing undetected and sparking a brawl among some inmates.
The package later was found hidden in a recreation yard equipment room. The drone visit was not discovered until prison officials reviewed surveillance video while investigating the fight.
Prison officials refused to release the video of the Mansfield drone flyover and related fight, saying the video was legally exempt from release as a security and infrastructure record since it could compromise prison security.
However, the prison department last year posted on its website a near four-minute video,containing views from two prison cameras, of guards chasing down and capturing Columbus child killer Lindsey Bruce moments after he escaped.
T.J. Lane, who fatally shot three fellow students at Chardon High School in 2012, and another inmate also escaped from Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution near Lima on Sept. 11 and were apprehended within hours.
The Mansfield video cannot be released because it would reveal camera placement information necessary to maintaining prison security, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Asked if the same concern does not exist at the Allen Oakwood prison, Smith said she was consulting agency lawyers and could not immediately respond.
Prison officials say they are working to counter the threat of high-tech drug smuggling poised by drones.
“As part of our continued effort to prevent this technology from being used to compromise the security of our facilities,” Smith said.
The group “will focus on strategies to improve detection and enhance awareness of the presence of unmanned aerial vehicles,” she said.
In the Columbus prison medical unit incident, an inmate said he saw the drone fly over the secured compound and then found it and turned it in to prison officials.
No contraband was found on the inmate and a search of the yard also found nothing, a prison incident report said.
It’s not a crime, unless contraband is involved, to fly a drone over a state prison or to even record airborne video, said a State Highway Patrol spokesman.