By the year 2024, the woman who was imprisoned for drowning her two boys in a lake could be walking free. Susan Smith, 49, has been serving time at the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, S.C. for over 20 years.

Apparently, she has been on her best behavior. Right now, her plan is to be freed from prison when her parole date comes up in a few years.

She was put behind bars for murdering her sons Michael, 3, and Alex, 2. The judge gave her a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

But even though she is cleaning up her act to help her get out on parole, her time behind bars has not been without incident.

She has been the center of many incidents while in prison. For instance, she has had sex with Houston Cagle, a prison guard, as well as Alfred Rowe, a prison captain.

The two men lost their jobs. In fact, Cagle also served three months in jail for this scandal, while Rowe got five years of probation in addition to being relieved of his duties.

Drug Use And Suicide Attempt

While behind bars, the woman also got involved with drugs. In particular, she abused narcotics and used marijuana.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

Prison records also show that at one time, the woman got involved in self-mutilation and even tried to commit suicide.

That is what makes her attempts to clean up her act so noteworthy. According to sources, the woman has "turned her life around."

But she has a clear agenda:

She's behaving herself these days. She knows that her parole date is four years away and she can't get parole if she isn't being good.

Smith has been keeping to herself to minimize chances of getting into trouble. But she knows that getting paroled will be a long shot:

She knows it's a long shot that she'll be paroled in four years, but she's giving it her best shot.

The woman was 23 when she was thrown in jail.

After committing the crimes, she started asking for help locating her sons. She alleged that a black man approached her while she was at a stoplight and forced her out of her car before taking off with it with her two sons still inside.

After the reports, an investigation began. Later, she admitted to leaving her boys in the car before letting it roll into a lake.

The children were later found dead in the submerged car.

Dubious Carjacking Claims Left Investigators In Doubt

Since the investigation began, the police were doubtful of her story.

For one, she claimed she was at a red light when she was carjacked, and that there were no other cars around.

However, the particular red light she spoke off only turned red if there was another car approaching from the cross street.

We were able to show, at one point, that her story could not have happened at that intersection because she said nobody was there. In order for the light to be red, a car would have had to activate the pressure pad on the intersecting street to make her light red.

What Led To These Senseless Murders?

After investigations, it was discovered that she was obsessed with a man who couldn't get into a serious relationship with her because she had kids.

Smith denied the claims. However, the merciless deaths of her children came after the man wrote her a letter saying he was not planning on being a stepfather to her kids.

Following claims that a black man had carjacked her, many black men in Union County were interrogated.

However, when she was informed that her fake story was causing racial divisiveness and traumatizing innocent black people, she broke down and told the whole truth.

In court, her lawyers tried to prove that the woman was depressed, suicidal and battling mental illness. It was also revealed that she was sexually abused when young.

Nevertheless, she still faced two counts of murder.

In 2015, she wrote a letter to a reporter saying she was not a monster.

In the letter, she painted herself as a woman who was not in her right mind when she did a horrendous and unplanned event that caused the death of two innocent boys. It remains to be seen if Smith will actually get parole when her hearing is due in 2024.