The most audacious thing about America’s prison crisis right now isn’t just drugs or gangs—it’s a drone trying to airlift a surf-and-turf feast into one of the deadliest prisons in the country.
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Holiday surf-and-turf over a prison yard of homicides
Officers at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, South Carolina, spotted the drone before dawn and found what can only be described as an outlaw Christmas gift basket dangling underneath.
Raw steak, plastic-wrapped crab legs, Old Bay Seasoning, Marlboro cigarettes, marijuana, and loose tobacco were bundled together in a contraband package that looked more like a backyard cookout than a standard prison bust. The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) branded it “#ContrabandChristmas” and joked about inmates getting “crabby” when their feast was foiled.
The humor barely masks the setting. Lee is a men’s prison known for housing violent offenders and inmates with serious behavioral problems about 50 miles east of Columbia. The facility already carries a grim reputation: in 2018, seven inmates were killed and 17 injured in one of the deadliest prison riots in recent U.S. history. In the week before this crab-boil drop, two more inmates died in separate attacks now under investigation as suspected homicides. On that yard, a drone full of shellfish becomes less funny and more like a taunt.
When contraband looks like dinner but acts like power
SCDC’s spokeswoman acknowledged that the mix of surf-and-turf with drugs was unusual even by their standards, but the pattern behind it is not. Contraband, whether fentanyl or filet mignon, buys loyalty, silence, and power inside the fence. Food is morale; drugs are currency; cigarettes are a control mechanism. From a common-sense conservative perspective, that package is less about indulgence and more about who really runs the tier when the lights go out. Whoever funded that drop was investing in influence, not just flavor.
The genuine concern is frequency, not novelty. SCDC says staff “fight nightly attacks from drones dropping dangerous drugs (often fentanyl and meth) onto prison yards” and go to “extraordinary lengths” to counter them.
That language echoes what correctional leaders across the country describe: a nightly low-grade war being fought by underpaid officers with binoculars against organized smugglers flying high-tech gear. Counties now even pay to store seized drones, adding yet another cost dumped on local taxpayers.
Georgia’s numbers show the scale, not the punchline
Data from Georgia’s prison system strips away any illusion that this is a quirky one-off story. The Georgia Department of Corrections reported nearly 400 drone incidents at state prisons in 2025 alone. Incidents climbed from 17 in January to more than 30 a month by June, then spiked to 63 in both September and October. One prison—Valdosta State Prison—absorbed the largest share of these episodes, showing how certain facilities become magnets for smuggling networks
The equipment involved is not hobbyist-grade. Georgia officials say they have seized drones capable of lifting 220–225 pounds, as well as others carrying 80–90 pounds, more than the average adult male in the United States weighs. According to Matthew Wolfe of the Office of Professional Standards, smugglers wrap football-sized bundles in duct tape to toss over fences; the drones and the throw-overs are two sides of the same industrial operation. Commissioner Tyrone Oliver’s testimony to lawmakers lays out the consequences: more than 18,600 contraband devices in the 2025 fiscal year after 16,633 the year before, and nearly 7,000 already logged in the current year.
Thin staffing, inside help, and a technology gap
Georgia’s own numbers show how outmatched the system can be. The staff-to-prisoner ratio stands at 1:14, compared with a goal of 1:11, and the department reports monthly applicant inflows that evaporate under background checks, no-shows, and attrition. Turnover hovers around 23–24 percent. That reality should matter to anyone who expects the state to maintain order: you cannot win a technology-driven smuggling war when every shift feels like plugging a dam with a garden hose.
The contraband statistics reveal a deeper rot. In one fiscal year, nearly 700 contraband-related cases led to 48 prison staff members arrested, 120 inmates charged, and 362 civilians detained. Those figures strongly support what many conservatives already suspect from common sense: high-tech drones are not flying blind. They often coordinate with corrupted insiders and overextended officers trying to survive on thin pay and thinner backup. Technology is exposing a moral and managerial problem, not just a security one.
The cost to taxpayers, communities, and any hope of rehabilitation
Every crab leg seized in a prison yard carries a price tag that most citizens never see. Counties pay to store seized drones; departments lobby for more funding; officers shoulder overtime; investigators chase cases that sprawl from rural back roads to urban gang networks. Those costs land squarely on law-abiding taxpayers who reasonably expect state institutions to maintain monopoly control over force and order behind the wire.
Prison officers intercept drone delivering steak, crab legs with seasoning to inmates in contraband drop https://t.co/A4XHSxoP6l pic.twitter.com/2K2kgaGGAs
— Salty Sarge (@Salty_Sarge78) December 10, 2025
Contraband-fueled violence spills into local hospitals, strains law enforcement, and keeps families of inmates in a constant state of anxiety about safety. The Lee facility’s history—a deadly 2018 riot and fresh homicides—underscores how phones, drugs, and illicit cash destabilize already volatile populations. The drone at Lee happened to carry a holiday surf-and-turf kit; in many other drops, the payload is fentanyl, meth, or weapons. The line between “gourmet” and “deadly” is one shopping list change away.
Sources:
Corrections staff report nearly 400 drone incidents at Georgia state prisons in 2025
Old Bay seasoning and pot: S.C. prison intercepts drone with gourmet contraband
Authorities intercept drone carrying steak, crab legs, weed for prison inmates
Drone drops Christmas contraband inside South Carolina prison yard