Tiffany Tippit with her son Landyn James, born March 25 while she was an inmate.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

Tiffany Tippit gave birth to her second child in March while an inmate at the Adult Correctional Institutions. She was 19.

The state took away her first son after the baby tested positive for drug exposure. Tippit said she was determined to hold on to newborn son Landyn when prison authorities released her in June.

It hasn’t worked out that way, says Tippit’s mother, Shelby Muennink, of Oklahoma City, Okla.

Little Landyn has remained in Rhode Island — under the care of the couple who adopted Tippit’s first boy — while Tippit lives with her mother in Oklahoma.

“We fought and fought for that baby,” says Muennink, “but it’s clear [child-care officials] don’t want to give him to her.”

Muennink says her daughter missed a visit with Landyn because she had returned to Oklahoma to get married. Tippit had hoped child-care officials would look more favorably upon her if they saw that she was married and responsible.

It didn’t seem to work. Even though Tippit hasn’t been charged with abandonment and has done well on her probation, Muennink says, the state hasn’t allowed her daughter to take Landyn out of state.

“It’s done her in,” Muennink says. “Tiffany came out of [prison] wanting to do right and be a mother but she feels defeated and no one will help her.

“Someday that child will have to be told his mother wanted him desperately but they wouldn’t let her have him.”

— Journal Staff Writer Tom Mooney

tmooney@projo.com