Prison escape showed "systemic failures," report says

ALBANY – The prison escape a year ago at the Clinton Correctional Facility in northern New York that led to a three-week manhunt was the result of "chronic complacency and systemic failures," a state report Monday found.

The long-awaited report from the Inspector General's Office showed a remarkable plan by the two inmates to coax a female employee and a male prison guard into providing them tools for their escape. It also revealed an extraordinary lack of oversight at the maximum-security prison that led to the breakout on June 5, 2015.

"The June 5 escape from Clinton was planned and executed by two particularly cunning and resourceful inmates, abetted by the willful, criminal conduct of a civilian employee of the prison’s tailor shops and assisted by the reckless actions of a veteran correction officer," the 150-page report found.

The escape has been considered a real-life version of The Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 classic in which an inmate escaped through prison pipes.

Richard Matt and David Sweat did just that, spending months cutting out holes in steel walls and pipes until they escaped in the middle of the night on an early Saturday morning.

Over three months, Sweat left his cell every night to work on the escape, the report said. Over those 85 nights, there should have been more than 400 inmate checks, and "any one of which, if conducted properly, would have detected Sweat’s absence and instantly foiled the escape plot," the report said.

Gaps exposed

But this was no movie, Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott said, saying that the caper put lives at risk and exposed deep flaws in New York's prison system run by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

The search cost New York $23 million in overtime, as well as $573,000 on repairs. The Inspector General's Office offered a number of recommendations to improve the prison system, which has 53,000 inmates at 54 prisons.

The recommendations include improved checks of the prisons; new cameras; better security systems; a new management structure and a new unit to oversee abuses in the system and conduct investigations.

“The extent of complacency and failure to adhere to the most basic security standards uncovered by my investigation was egregious and inexcusable,” she said in a statement. "These systemic deficiencies led to the escape of two convicted murderers, striking fear in communities and placing brave law enforcement personnel at risk, at a high cost to the state."

Prison-reform groups said the Dannemora escape hasn't led to the type of widespread changes needed to improve the conditions in New York's prisons. In particular, violence at Dannemora had been pronounced even before the escape, and reports continue of abuse at the prison and in other facilities.

Just last month, a 25-year-old Syracuse prisoner at Dannemora died there, and the Correctional Association of New York is questioning whether the death was at the hands of guards.

"Clearly more needs to be done – as far as safety, making sure guards are held accountable, trained properly, screened properly," said Soffiyah Elijah, who heads the group, which advocates for prisoners' rights.

The corrections department said it has taken numerous steps to improve security at prisons.

“Since last June, DOCCS has instituted a number of reforms to strengthen operations at Clinton Correctional Facility, including installing new cameras and security gates, retraining staff, disciplining responsible employees, appointing a new superintendent and replacing other senior administrative personnel," spokesman Thomas Mailey said in a statement.

"We are reviewing the Inspector General’s findings and will work with her office to implement her recommendations to improve operations at Clinton and throughout the entire system, and help ensure this incident is never repeated.”

Escape plot

In the escape last year, Matt and Sweat were aided by two prison workers, Joyce Mitchell and Gene Palmer. Palmer was sentenced in February to six months in prison for slipping the men supplies in meat.

Mitchell, who was romantically involved with Matt, sneaked in tools past guards to help the prisoners. She was sentenced in September to seven years in prison after freezing hacksaw blades in the meat for the men and initially agreeing to be their getaway driver.

She reneged on the escape plan, leading Matt and Sweat to hide out in the dense Adirondacks as more than 1,000 law-enforcement agents scoured the forest for escapees.

“If I could take it all back, I would,” Mitchell said when she was sentenced Sept. 28. “I am still trying to acknowledge my actions and understand why I did what I did.”

Matt was shot and killed by an officer on June 26. Sweat was captured two days later.

According to the report, Sweat and Matt began their plot in January 2015 and immediately got Mitchell's help. She sneaked in six hacksaw blades because, contrary to front gate policy, her bag was not searched.

Also, Palmer trusted the men, who would draw paintings for him and his family. As a result, Palmer let them go to their cells with the items and made sure they were housed in adjacent cells, the report said.

Sweat on Feb. 3 was sentenced 3 1/2 to 7 years on top of his lifetime prison sentence for the breakout.

"Brazen" assistance

The report said that despite the "deceit and ingenuity" of Sweat and Matt, Mitchell was the one who made the whole scam possible -- having engaged in relationships with both of them.

"Even as she professed her love for Sweat in notes she secretly sent him, Mitchell engaged in numerous sexual encounters with Matt in the tailor shop," the report said.

Mitchell, the report said, long had a reputation of getting too cozy with the inmates. But she was still assigned to head the tailor shop where Matt and Sweat worked, with a female supervisor testifying that "staff shortages and production pressures left her no option."

Sweat said he wrote Mitchell “love lust” notes merely to “placate her.”

The IG's report said the state corrections department should have known better.

In 2003, two convicted murderers, Timothy Vail and Timothy Morgan, escaped from the maximum-security Elmira Correctional Facility, and the circumstances of the escape were similar to those pulled off by Matt and Sweat, the report said.

Last year's escape, though, led to an overhaul of the prison's leadership, with the warden and other top officials initially being put on leave and ultimately retiring.

New York also made one sweeping change last December: It will reduce the number of inmates in solitary confinement, the result of major court settlement.

Over the next three years, the state plans to spend $62 million to move about 1,000 inmates out of isolation.