Richard Matt

Prison worker who helped 2 killers escape gets up to 7 years

Joyce Mitchell apologized profusely as she was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison, saying she acted in part out of fear. 

She also might have to contribute to the $120,000 in restitution the state is seeking for damages to Clinton Correctional Facility from the brazen June 6 escape. The judge showed little sympathy as he handed down the sentence and set a Nov. 6 restitution hearing.

Ex-prison worker: I played along with murderers' escape plan

In the second part of a two-part jailhouse interview aired Friday on NBC's "Today" show, Joyce Mitchell said she had no doubts Richard Matt and David Sweat would have killed her if she had met them with a vehicle and a shotgun like they asked after they escaped June 6 from Clinton Correction Facility.

The pair went on the run for three weeks. Matt was killed by a border agent June 26. Sweat was wounded and captured by a state trooper two days later.

Woman who helped 2 killers escape says she was depressed

In the first of a two-part jailhouse interview aired Monday morning on NBC's "Today" show, Joyce Mitchell told host Matt Lauer she cooperated with demands for help from Richard Matt and David Sweat because Matt had threatened members of her family.

"People need to know that I was only trying to save my family," said Mitchell, 51, who worked in the tailor shop at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, near the Canadian border in northern New York.

NY prison escapee arraigned on charges in daring breakout

David Sweat, shackled and with his right arm in a sling, was brought to court in Plattsburgh from the special housing unit at Five Points Correctional Facility, where he's been kept in a solitary cell for 23 hours a day. A judge entered not-guilty pleas for Sweat on two felony counts of first-degree escape and a felony count of promoting prison contraband for possessing hacksaw blades.

New York prison worker: I got 'caught up' in escape plot

Joyce Mitchell, 51, an instructor in the tailor shop at the Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York, tearfully pleaded guilty Tuesday to helping prisoners Richard Matt and David Sweat escape. She faces a sentence of 2 1/3 to seven years in prison under terms of a plea deal with prosecutors.

Her lawyer, Stephen Johnston, said Mitchell realizes she made a "horrible mistake" by getting involved with Matt and Sweat, who staged an elaborate escape from the maximum-security prison on June 6.

New warden, security measures after New York prison escape

The state correction department said Wednesday that includes stepped-up searches of inmates' cells, staffing changes to ensure bed checks are more effective and installation of security gates in the facility's tunnels.

The department also announced that 30-year correction veteran Michael Kirkpatrick will be the new superintendent of the prison, the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. 

2 convicted murderers practiced night before prison breakout

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie said David Sweat, 35, told police from his Albany Medical Center hospital bed that he masterminded the June 6 breakout from Clinton Correctional Facility and began working on it in January.

The escape by Sweat and 49-year-old Richard Matt launched a massive 23-day manhunt amid the rugged northern New York terrain involving more than 1,100 law enforcement officers.

BREAKING: Prison chief, 11 others put on leave after escapes

A state official who has been briefed on the matter told The Associated Press that Clinton Correctional Facility Superintendent Steven Racette and Deputy Superintendent Stephen Brown are among those on leave. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said the suspensions are part of the ongoing review of the June 6 escape by convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat. Matt was killed Friday and Sweat wounded and captured Sunday.

Gov. Cuomo: Inmates had sights on Mexico but ride backed out

David Sweat, 35, was running from a state trooper Sunday afternoon when he was shot twice in the torso less than 2 miles from the Canadian border. Sweat was in serious condition Monday at a hospital.

Cuomo told the Capitol Pressroom radio program that Sweat was starting to relay information to police about his escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6 with fellow inmate Richard Matt, who was killed Friday afternoon.

The Latest: Escaped killer was shot 3 times in the head

New York State Police released details of Richard Matt's autopsy on Sunday.

Officials say Matt also had bug bites on his legs, blisters and minor abrasions that would be expected for someone who had been living in the woods. Toxicology results are still pending.

Matt was shot and killed by a member of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tactical Unit on Friday. He and another inmate escaped from a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border on June 6.

Hundreds of law enforcement personnel are still searching for David Sweat.