Jenifer Lynn Patterson, 24, is facing a serious charge this week after the North Carolina mother used her 4-year-old son to smuggle drugs to an inmate at Columbus Correctional Institution. The question is whether in addition to the charge of felony introduction of drugs into prison facility should be combined with a move to sever her parental custody of her two children.
Patterson is accused of putting marijuana in the pockets of her son while visiting the prison with two children. She allegedly was smuggling the drugs to Cody Lambert, 24, who is serving roughly a three-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a gun.
Patterson allegedly told Lambert that the drugs were in her son’s pants and took the child to the restroom to retrieve the drugs. There appears to be surveillance videotape evidence. Presumably, Lambert will also be charged.
Both children were turned over to the Department of Social Services. The question is whether she will lose the children. My assumption is that she will. Not only did she use the children to allegedly commit a felony but put the child in danger from the possession of drugs. It is to see such conduct would not lead to the termination of parental rights, even though foster care is hardly a positive situation for such children.
North Carolina Mother Arrested After Allegedly Using Four-Year-Old To Smuggle Drugs Into Prison
Silly girl, using her four year old son to smuggle contraband into prison, she should have used a prison guard instead.
Contraband Smuggling a Problem at Prisons and Jails Nationwide
The smuggling of illicit items such as drugs, cigarettes and cell phones into prisons and jails continues to be a significant problem throughout the United States. Often the people doing the smuggling are guards or other corrections employees, who, motivated by greed, accept bribes from prisoners.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2013/jan/15/contraband-smuggling-a-problem-at-prisons-and-jails-nationwide/
Shadow, A case could be made that severing parental rights is more harsh than capital punishment. That said, I never saw a case where parental rights were severed that I would consider that the case. I’m sure Hollywood could construct a plot of a good mom who is the victim of an evil prosecutor and has her kids taken away. But, the reality is, for even the action to be filed, you have a horrible mother who has been abusive and neglectful. I have stated here previously, I do not believe in capital punishment. I do not get into debates on it. It is a private religious and practical belief. But, I do believe the govt. must, in extreme cases, take children from their parents[almost always just the mom]. It is heart wrenching. I’ve been involved w/ these cases. I’ve served moms w/ summons and complaints in these cases. It is somber. It is horrible. But, it is sometimes necessary.
Interview with the kid twenty years from now:
Officer Krumpke: So, George, how did you get out of the Navy and end up here in Virginia and where did you go to high school?
George: I did my four years in the Navy and decided on a job with the marijuana factory here. I went to high school in NC but did not grow up with parents. I lived in a juvenile facility.
Krumpke: So do you have parents who are still alive?
George: I got yanked from my mom when I was four and grew up in the institution. I have not seen my mom or dad since then. They said I took some pot into a prison for my dad and with that they yanked me outta mom’s care.
Krumpke: All for taking some pot to your dad?
George: Yeah it was not legal then.
Krumpke: Well, I looked into this and found your mom. She lives here in Falls Church.
George: WHAT? You, you, found my mom? Here in Falls Church? Can, can, I see her?
Krumpke: Well, as a matter of fact she is a dispatcher here in town and I just talked to her and she is dying to see you. Wanna drive over with me?
George: HECK YES! Lets go. Right On!
Nick said:
“This incident alone would not rise to the level of doing what I consider to be just below capital punishment…”
Nick I’ve heard the severing of parental rights referred to as “civil capital punishment.”
Oy look at my yiddisher pickel!
LOL! I am picturing Trooper playing Tevye and singing, “Tradition!”
She is kinka cute. Why didn’t she hide it in her vagina. That’s traditional.
It is a shame when people ignore tradition.
I wonder how this would go down in Colorado where pot is legal. I wonder how it would go down if she were to get a jury trial on the issue of child custody and termination of her parental rights. What would a jury of her peers from Denver say about this?
Jeso. The guards in this particular prison probably smoke pot. The warden probably does. The judge probably did in a prior episode or two at least. What if she had smuggled the inmate some aspirin? It was not heroin or meth.
If the judge in this case yanks the kids away from the mother for good then the kids might just grow up and come back and have a word with the judge down the road.
Nick, that is SO TRUE. Even serial killers get their groupies. What I hate to see is someone so under sway that they subvert the good of their own children to serve a boyfriend. I don’t understand it. Is the dating world that bad?
I’m glad this was not meth, or heroine, or some other substance so toxic that handling it could have been deadly for the child.
Very sad. And, you’re right, the foster system is broken. No promise of unicorns and rainbows there.
I wouldn’t presume she would lose the kids. Here in CA, I knew of a troubled woman who took meth while pregnant, the whole time, and she didn’t lose her child. She got clean for a few weeks and allegedly went back to using. Her little boy is probably doomed to a rotten life, and an eventual life of drugs and crimes, if statistics are any predictor.
Paul – you are hilarious. I despise zero tolerance in schools. Many years ago, a girl from my barn was a severe asthmatic. She was not allowed to carry her rescue inhaler at school. If she had an attack, they sent her to the nurse. They could not have another student run to the nurse, because then THAT student would have had to carry contraband medication. She was hospitalized 3 times because of delays in getting her inhaler. I recall her parents were going to sue, but I never knew how it turned out.
Are we sure the 4 year old is not the ringleader in this? Look at all the stuff we have coming out of the elementary schools on grade and pre-schoolers. There is no reason the kid cannot be the head of the gang.
My bride and myself both worked in a Federal Prison[s] and worked w/ released inmates. Folks have no idea the hold male inmates can have over women. Often times the women are lonely, desperate people. My wife did many a presentence investigation on women conned into doing stuff like this.
Regarding several parental rights. I would need more background. This incident alone would not rise to the level of doing what I consider to be just below capital punishment, that being taking children permanently from their parents. When I worked in the juvenile court in KC, those were always the most contentious cases. And, they involved MUCH worse behavior than this.
Tough one, given the proximity of pot to kids in millions of households, not so cut and dry.