Feeling obliged to care for her brother and threatened by another person, Jamie Lee Brown made the “terrible mistake” of taking drugs that could have been sold for about $1 million into a Queensland prison.
The 26-year-old pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Tuesday to two counts of supplying dangerous drugs to a person in the Woodford Correctional Centre.
Almost a year ago to the day, Brown was seen arriving at the prison where her brother was in custody, driving away and coming back before a detection dog identified drugs on her.
While being searched Brown admitted having something on her before producing a package from her buttocks area, the court was told.
Inside were 20 “hugely valuable” smaller packages of 716 8mg suboxone strips and 151 2mg suboxone strips containing the drug buprenorphine intended to be sold in the prison, Chief Justice Helen Bowskill said in sentencing Brown.
“Depending on how much they were broken down, the value of them was somewhere between just over $214,000 and just over $1 million.”
Another package contained 1.989g of methamphetamine.
There was a sad tale as to how Brown came to take the drugs - which did not belong to her - into prison, Justice Bowskill said.
Brown had to step up to care for her siblings at a young age after a difficult childhood as their parents were drug users, the court was told.
“A combination of that family obligation to care for and look after, in this case, your brother in custody, and duress or pressure being put on you by the person who asked you to take these drugs into the prison, are the reason why you did it,” Justice Bowskill told Brown in delivering the sentence.
The court accepted there were threats to her safety and that of her brother.
“It really seems to me that you made a terrible mistake … that carries criminal consequences,” Justice Bowskill told Brown.
She said Brown had been able to get some stability in her life since offending and the court would rather see her stay on that path than go to jail for the serious offence.
Justice Bowskill sentenced Brown to two years behind bars but ordered she be released immediately on parole.
