An attempted escape has netted a Grand Valley man at least two years in state prison.

Jason Lawrence Pattison, Sr., 11729 Rt. 27, Grand Valley, was sentenced on Friday by Judge Gregory Hammond.

Pattison was charged in February by Sheriff Ken Klakamp.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, an off duty corrections officer contacted the jail and said that Pattison “who was on a snow shoveling detail at 333 Hickory Street has taken off from his work detail.”

The affidavit alleges that Warden Jon Collins and Deputy Warden Rusty Barr “located Jason Pattison inside the St. Clair medical building” and took him back into custody.

“After Pattison was returned to the jail Warden Jon Collins stated that the jail had received intelligence that Pattison was going to send a letter out with work release inmate Cody Cox,” the affidavit explains. Jail officials found the letter on Cox, addressed to Pattison’s paramour.

“In the letter (Pattison asks) his paramour to get him five fentanyl patche(s) and 20 pills believed to be hydrocodone pills,” the affidavit states. “Instructions were given on where Cody Cox worked along, with Cox’s work schedule and what he would be wearing. Pattison gave instructions to wait until Cox had left his worksite and then approach him and give Cox the fentanyl patches and pills and Cox would bring them into the jail.”

Cox told Klakamp that “Pattison told him that once he got the items in, he (Pattison) was going to sell some of the pills on the cellblock but keep most of the items for himself.”

Pattison’s attorney, Elizabeth Feronti, told the court that Pattison was incarcerated for six months for child support issues.

She said that she wasn’t trying to minimize Pattison’s conduct but explained that he had back surgery in 2014 and continued to have pain issues, even when he was first incarcerated.

Because he couldn’t work, his “support got very large,” Feronti said, alleging that Pattison asked for medical help while incarcerate but never saw a doctor.

She claimed that he walked from his work detail to go to the hospital in order to obtain medication.

“He did a really stupid thing,” Feronti said, explaining that an incident when he was 17 – which Hammond later identified as kidnapping at gunpoint – results in Pattison being classified as a repeat felon who “knows he’s going to state.

“This is not your normal repeat felon,” she said, noting his record in the 20 years since that incident only includes a harassment conviction and traffic violations.

District Attorney Rob Greene said that defense counsel tried to make Pattison look unique but disagreed with that idea because many people have problems in life and don’t turn to criminal conduct.

“They are excuses,” he said, noting that two weeks after he was arrested on these charges he was caught trying to make alcohol in the jail with fermented fruit.

Pattison said he takes full responsibility for his actions and apologized to the Commonwealth as well as the court.

Hammond said that it was “baffling that a non-support contempt sentence brings you here today.”

“You’ve let a ton of people down, Mr. Pattison, including four young kids.”

Hammond pointed to his “hooch making” while incarcerated as further evidence of significant addiction issues and reminded Pattison that his prior kidnapping at gunpoint “doesn’t go away.”

He then sentenced Pattison to 24 to 48 months in state prison, $1,625 in fines and fees, submission of a DNA sample and participation in a drug and alcohol evaluation and any recommended treatment on a count of escape.