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SS#2/SCS/SB 194 - This act creates the offenses of unlawful use of an unmanned aircraft near a correctional center and unlawful use of an unmanned aircraft near a mental health hospital. These offenses are committed if someone purposely operates an unmanned aircraft within a vertical distance of 300 feet of the correctional center or mental health hospital or a horizontal distance of the property line of the correctional center or mental health hospital. These offenses are also committed if a person purposely uses an unmanned aircraft to deliver a controlled substance or object that may be used to harm an offender or patient or harm an employee of a correctional center or mental health hospital. The term "correctional center" is defined to include all state correctional centers, private jails, and local jails. Additionally, "mental health hospital" is defined to include any facility operated by the Department of Mental Health to provide inpatient evaluation, treatment, or care to persons suffering from a mental disorder, mental illness, or mental abnormality. This act shall not apply to certain individuals acting in the course their of their official duties or to public utilities or rural electric cooperatives under certain circumstances, as is described in this act. Under this act, every correctional center and mental health hospital shall post an eleven by fourteen inch sign warning of the provisions of this act. Violations of the act shall be punished as a Class B felony if the person operating the unmanned aircraft was delivering an article that may be used to harm an offender or patient or harm an employee of the correctional center or mental health hospital. If the use of the unmanned aircraft was to facilitate an escape from the correctional center or mental health hospital, then it shall be punished as a Class C felony. Finally, if the person operating the unmanned aircraft was delivering a controlled substance, then it shall be punished as a Class D felony. This act is similar to HCS/HB 324 (2019). CHARLIE MERRIWEATHER
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