The Prison Escape That Riveted the Nation: 5 Things We Learned From an Inquiry Into How It Happened

ALBANY, N.Y. — The elaborate 2015 escape of two convicted murderers from an upstate prison riveted the nation and led to all manner of introspection from embarrassed New York state officials.

A 2016 report painted a sordid and sensational portrait of the personal relationship involving the inmates — David Sweat and Richard Matt — and a besotted prison worker, Joyce Mitchell, who helped the two men break out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, near the Canadian border.

On Friday, a second report by the state’s inspector general, Catherine Leahy Scott, examined broader issues inside the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and found there are still relationships between inmates and employees. And, of course, the report cited the infamous tailor shops inside the Clinton prison, where Mitchell and the prisoners met.

Here’s a rundown of some of the high — or low — points of Scott’s investigation.

The 28-page report reveals that exposure of the scandal involving Joyce Mitchell and the two inmates didn’t put an end to romances in the prison between employees and prisoners. Another Clinton tailor-shop worker — Denise Prell — was arrested in 2017 for “an unlawful romantic relationship, which included kissing and fondling on at least three occasions.”

Prell, a supervisor, was additionally found to have made deposits into an inmate’s prison account and paid a debt for him; to have called and written notes to the inmate; and even to have invented an identity — Gwendolyn Freeman — to try to hide her behavior. It didn’t work: Prell was fired and pleaded guilty Tuesday to 25 misdemeanor counts, including promoting prison contraband, sexual abuse and official misconduct. She will be sentenced in November.

The report also found that the tailor shops in Clinton — a hulking behemoth that is New York’s largest state-run prison — continue to be a concern for corrections officials, including instances of “inmate manipulation of staff.”

To that end, the report recommended a series of changes, including posting officers in Tailor Shop 5 — where Prell worked — and adding more cameras and video monitors. It also recommended more training for “civilians and correction officers on recognizing and reporting indicators of inappropriate relationships between staff members and inmates.”

Sweat and Matt took advantage of lax security at Clinton to hatch their escape, using power tools to drill out of their adjoining cells, before clambering through the prison’s innards and out of the prison via a maze of pipes and tunnels. They exited through a manhole a block from the maximum security facility. Such a complicated plan relied on less-than-diligent guards, something the report says is still a problem.

“Correction officers working overnight shifts in some blocks were continuing to neglect their primary duty — ensuring that inmates are in their cells, alive and well,” the report said. In addition, the report found at least six cases of “contraband television sets with cable connections” in officers’ areas, as well comfy chairs, mattresses, pillows and — in one case — a portable hammock.

Another inspection found sheets and bedrolls in a basement area, where two guards were seen on surveillance video spending “up to five hours during their eight-hour shifts.” Another guard also confessed to reading in the basement location “during his idle time” and sometimes falling asleep.

His reading material? “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” the Stephen King novella about — you guessed it — a prison escape.

The inspector general also made unannounced inspections of two prisons — Taconic Correctional Facility, a medium-security women’s prison in Bedford Hills — and Wende Correctional Facility in Alden.

Neither did great: at Taconic, in Westchester County, inspectors found “a workforce that is largely lackadaisical about its professional appearance,” as well as “employee lockers containing alcohol; confidential inmate financial records maintained in an unsecured area; and evidence of a possible romantic relationship between a former inmate and a correction officer.” Wende — a maximum security men’s prison near Buffalo — did better, with inspectors judging locker rooms to “be clean and orderly.” But contraband was found, including pocketknives, a corkscrew and a cigar cutter. In both cases, employees were disciplined.

Fun fact: Sweat, who was captured after three weeks on the lam, is now housed at Wende. Matt was shot and killed by a police officer about 50 miles from Clinton.

Prell’s relationship with the inmate — which was discovered after another inmate “dropped a rat note” to the authorities — ended her corrections career, which had seemingly been on the upswing. Indeed, the report notes she had been chosen by the corrections department to serve as an assistant to actress Patricia Arquette, who is playing Mitchell in an upcoming television series about the escape.