'Escape at Dannemora' wasn't just a prison break, they had inside help
Though the case is nearly a decade old, the Clinton Correctional Facility escape is garnering interest once again thanks to a new audience giving it attention.
The fictionalized true-crime series "Escape at Dannemora," starring Patricia Arquette, Benicio Del Toro and Paul Dano, originally aired on Showtime in 2018 before Netflix began streaming it in late October of this year. Since then, viewership of the show has spiked, and details about this real-life prison break have caused a stir once more.
What happened in Dannemora?
Dannemora is a small town in upstate New York with a current population of a little over 3,000 people. In 2015, two inmates at the Clinton Correctional Facility, which borders Dannemora, concocted an alleged escape plan with the help of prison worker Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell.
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At the time, Richard Matt and David Sweat were both serving time at the maximum-security prison for murder.
"Escape at Dannemora" came out in 2018, but Netflix just made it available and that revived interest in the New York prison break.
Matt was convicted of second-degree murder of his former boss, William Rickerson, 11 years after Rickerson’s body parts washed ashore in North Tonawanda in New York state. Matt was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
In a separate incident, Sweat pleaded guilty to the fatal shooting of Broome County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarsia in 2002 and was sentenced to life in prison.
Despite their criminal behavior, the inmates were housed in the "Honor Block" of the Clinton Correctional Facility, a tier reserved for inmates who demonstrated good behavior and were given additional privileges like cooking stations, televisions and phone accessibility.
Matt and Sweat also worked together in the prison’s tailor shop under the supervision of Mitchell, who allegedly had sexual entanglements with the two, despite her denial of any sexual relations with either of them. After "Escape at Dannemora" debuted, Mitchell openly criticized Ben Stiller, who directed all series episodes, as a "liar" who "doesn’t care about the truth."
However, due to her involvement in the escape plan, Mitchell pleaded guilty and was charged with promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation in 2015. Another prison worker, veteran corrections officer, Eugene Palmer, was also charged with promoting prison contraband and tampering with physical evidence due to his own alleged involvement with the inmates’ escape plan.
An escape shines a light on a failed prison system
With the alleged aid of Mitchell and Palmer, on June 6, 2015, Matt and Sweat escaped Clinton Correctional Facility.
Leading up to the escape, Sweat left his cell every night for three months to chip away at the walls and pipes using hacksaw blades and other tools provided by Mitchell to provide a pathway out. Per the report filed by the State of New York Office of the Inspector General, and what was detailed in the television series, "[Sweat] and Matt cut every evening from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., while most other Honor Block inmates were at the mess hall or engaged in recreation on the first-floor 'flats.' Sweat said officers did not question why he and Matt remained in their cell during these hours because it had long been their habit to cook their own dinners and paint in their cells."
While one cut for 15 or 20 minutes until he tired, the other stood by his cell door with a mirror watching for an officer making rounds. In the event an officer approached, the cutting ceased and they quickly turned to diversionary activities such as listening to a radio on headphones, watching television, painting, or pretending to be asleep."
The Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, is photographed on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, File)
However, a key point left out from the show’s telling of the story is the institutional failure of the prison guards to perform routine checks which would have quashed Sweat’s efforts and likely prevented the escape from happening.
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The Inspector General’s investigation also revealed "that officers on the night shift in the Honor Block conducted night counts inadequately, or not at all, over a long period, failing to detect Sweat’s near-nightly absences from his cell as well as Sweat’s and Matt’s escape late on June 5. These failures are startling, given that night-shift officers have virtually no responsibility other than performing counts and rounds with no distraction from inmate activity or movement to programs. In addition, the investigation found that officers throughout the prison completed and certified night count forms before the counts were actually conducted."
Where the path ends
Twenty days after their escape, Matt was found alone, after separating from Sweat, approximately 30 miles west of the prison. Failing to surrender, he was shot and killed by police.
Despite their criminal behavior, the inmates were housed in the "Honor Block" of the Clinton Correctional Facility, a tier reserved for inmates who demonstrated good behavior and were given additional privileges like cooking stations, televisions and phone accessibility.
A couple of days later, New York State Police Sgt. Jay Cook spotted Sweat jogging down a road in a town only five miles south of the Canadian border. He was shot twice in the torso, and after being treated in the hospital for wounds, he was sent back to prison to resume his life sentence.
He never returns to Dannemora but instead first goes to Wende Correctional Facility in Buffalo, NY where he is under 24-hour surveillance in solitary confinement. However, state records show Sweat is currently incarcerated in Mid-State Correctional Facility in Marcy. He continues to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
And, as of February 2020, Tilly Mitchell was released from prison after serving nearly five of her seven years.
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Kelly Hyman is an attorney, TV legal analyst, Democratic political commentator and the host of the popular true-crime podcast, "Once Upon a Crime in Hollywood." She has been called "a modern day Erin Brockovich" by Forbes and has appeared on Fox News, ABC, NBC, CBS, CourtTV, BBC and MSNBC. She focuses on complex litigation such as class actions and mass tort litigation. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
